The Manchester Review

The Real Story presents Know Your Place: Gena-mour Barrett, Abondance Matanda, Andrew McMillan & Kit de Waal; International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 9 October 2017. The title of this event, and the book it launches, makes a clear demand of us: not to reflect on our place, not to consider it, but to know it. Taken […]

Elif Shafak & Nadeem Aslam, hosted by Erica Wagner; Central Library, 15 October 2017. “Where to begin” – was the place at which Erica Wagner initiated the event, setting up the primary concerns and philosophical line of conversation that would formulate an intellectually invigorating and moving discussion between these two powerful writers, Elif Shafak and […]

The Things I Would Tell You: Asma Elbadawi, Nafeesa Hamid, Hibaq Osman and Sabrina Mahfouz, Central Library, 15 October 2017. Sabrina Mahfouz is a British Egyptian playwright, poet and screenwriter. As the editor of the anthology “The Things I Would I Tell You”, she warmly greets the crowds and introduces the writers Asma Elbadawi, Nafeesa […]

Will Self, hosted by Alex Clark, Central Library, 10 October 2017. Self lumbers onto the stage dressed in a quasi-uniform of Napoleonic blue and high-throated red, mutters to himself through a jawful of gum, then plays peek-a-boo with the armchair. The effect is of a large off-duty circus monkey. The audience leans in, unsure whether […]

Malika Booker; International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 8 October 2017. If you didn’t make the Malika Booker event last night, you missed a truly magical theatre production of the imagination; full of the wilderness, the natural world, animals masquerading as political figures, Lazarus rising for ‘more fire’ (!), and women letting ‘citrus oils into the wind’… Malika […]

An Evening With Chris Kraus, in conversation with Kaye Mitchell; Waterstone’s, Deansgate, September 27, 2017. “Hope not 2 offend but if I die please dont let the frenemy w whom I shared a bf read my diaries & write my biog” wrote artist Jesse Darling, in a recent tweet, regarding the launch of Chris Kraus’s […]

How to Write Science-fiction: Sara Maitland, Adam Marek, Dr Rob Appleby, and Ra Page; Bluedot, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Orbit stage, July 8-9 2017. When a Science-fiction writer’s panel kicks off with the sound of foxes howling you know you’re in for an interesting ride. The three men sitting on the front row are in full […]

Bluedot, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Contact stage, July 8 2017. There’s a sense at Bluedot sometimes of the stark difference between the utopia of the open air fields and the darker undercurrent of misdemeanour inside the science talks. Not that there’s anything dangerous or dodgy going on, more that there are confrontations within these fabric walls […]

Bluedot, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Mission Control, July 7 2017. It’s hot. I’ve danced in the sun throwing my head back, losing my hat. I’ve burnt my nose. I have an ice-cream and there are tents all round the edges of the field, they’re full of clever people giving talks. I’ll chose somewhere to sit and […]

Bluedot, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Mission Control, July 7 2017. It’s a tall order trying to explain life, the universe and everything – or at least how it all started – to a tent full of festival folk on a cloudy Friday in a field in Cheshire in forty minutes. But particle physics Professor Jeff Forshaw […]

Kate Tempest in conversation with Dave Haslam, HOME, April 17 2016 Something feels a little bit special before the event even gets going. There’s a buzz in the room. You look around as Kate Tempest’s Everybody Down plays through the speakers and you see that the audience is made up of an interesting mixture of […]

As part of my current project of ‘working on anything except my PhD’, I’ve been revisiting a conference paper I gave last year. The paper was on internet poetry and cuteness (and will hopefully resurface at some point) and uses Steve Roggenbuck’s poetry and the anthology, The Yolo Pages (Boosthouse, 2014) to make a claim […]

Catherine O’Flynn at the Manchester Literature Festival Saturday 19th October Waterstones Deansgate   Drenched from the Manchester rain, I stumbled into Waterstones, Deansgate, to hear Libby Tempest warmly introduce the novelist Catherine O’Flynn. I seemed to be the only one in the room lucky enough to be caught in the sudden thunder and lightning, but I […]

Clare Shaw and Conor O’Callaghan, Manchester Literature Festival at Deansgate, reviewed by Chloe Heard The intimate surroundings of Waterstones was the chosen setting for a reading by contemporary poets Clare Shaw and Conor O’ Callaghan. With a rich northern twang Clare Shaw warmed up a gloomy Mancunian Friday with captivating wit and an insightful explanation […]

Elaine Feinstein in conversation with Michael Schmidt, Manchester Literature Festival, 13.10.13.  Reviewed by Joe Carrick-Varty   Elaine Feinstein wrote her first poem when she was eight years old, ‘banging a ball against the garage door to create rhythm’. Who would have known that this Jewish child would flourish into one of the most influential poets […]

Jeanette Winterson in conversation with Audrey Niffenegger: Manchester Literature Festival at Martin Harris Centre, October 13th, reviewed by Lauren Hill Tonight’s event, held at the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama, was a discussion between acclaimed novelist Jeanette Winterson (author of such works as Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit – 1985 – and […]

The Manchester Literature Festival: Jordi Punti Instituto Cervantes on Thursday, October 10th Theodora Gardouni “Maletes Perdudes” (“Lost Luggage”) is the latest award-winning novel of Jordi Punti, who is considered as one of the most important “voices” of Catalan Literature. While Punti is renowned for his short stories, he chose to pleasantly surprise his readership, with […]

Lola Albarn Literature Live-Moniza Alvi and Nadeem Aslam, Oct 7th 2013 Moniza Alvi and Nadeem Aslam each read a selection of their work at the Martin Harris Centre on the 7th of October 2013; despite both being incredible writers, who have drawn upon their Pakistani heritage to inspire and shape their work, for me, Nadeem […]