The Manchester Literature Festival Special Issue As part of our Higher Education partnership with Manchester Literature Festival, the Centre for New Writing has been thrilled to once again partner on a bold and original programme of live lit events, showcasing inspirational writers from across the globe alongside emerging talent from the region. In this Special […]
MLF Special Issue
Letters to James Baldwin
Letters to James Baldwin Dear James, -I wish I could call you – Jimmy, the way that woman you described as handsome and so very clever, Toni Morrison – always called you Jimmy which meant that she loved you, and you her, and that in the never-ending Christmas of your meetings (this is how she […]
Bodies of Colour: A Poetic Script
Bodies of Colour: A Poetic Script 1. DAVE IS ALREADY PLAYING AS THE AUDIENCE ARRIVE. TWO – THREE APPROPRIATE IMPROVISATIONS INSPIRED BY THE COLOURS AND THE STORIES OF THE WALLPAPER IN THE EXHIBITION SPACES. ROMMI IS WITH THE AUDIENCE DOWNSTAIRS, SHE MOVES UPSTAIRS AS THE BULK OF THE AUDIENCE MOVES UPSTAIRS. 2. ROMMI GOES TO […]
The 2018 Castlefield Manchester Sermon – I wish for you
The 2018 Castlefield Manchester Sermon – I wish for you There is today, and there has been for some time, a pall of gloom and doom hanging over the environment. And with good reason, very good reason. But it is not the whole story. And being downhearted about it all does not help put it […]
Love makes as many
Love makes as many For all the staff and volunteers at NT Quarry Bank, with my heartfelt thanks -Beth Underdown 1918 The looms are quiet, this week. Government orders. There’s not enough cotton, not enough boats getting through; so, for once, the looms are still. ‘Some folk get on better,’ Martha says, ‘if they close […]
Salford, 1986
Salford, 1986 Introduction Martin Parr’s photographs capture the frozen moment. They offer fleeting glimpses into passing lives, framed and constrained by the parameters of the print. Who are these subjects? We rarely find out; they are dispossessed of literal voices, as all photographic subjects are. Instead it is left to our imaginations to fill in […]
Eight Days Left
Eight Days Left The black ambulance pulled up outside the flat at three minutes to eleven. The pavement was overgrown with dandelion stalks and their feathers caught on Sean’s trousers as he used a chipped brick to wedge open the gate. He pulled keys from his pocket and clicked the lock open revealing a cavernous […]
Posh
Posh ‘I think you’re going to like this place,’ he said ‘it’s posh.’ And I laughed, because actually it was a good, if obvious joke and I liked him for making it and no, I didn’t think he was making fun of me. It was sweet. It was when we were walking through the lobby […]
there & back
there & back i. there Victoria At ten, my globe was this tiled atlas, crimson-black veins the neural pathways of Yorkshire, Lancashire. Here, it’s always evening and I’m holding my dad’s hand, asking what’s Huddersfield? but now we’re moving, travelling backwards till we’re out of sight, now I can’t see the curve of his face. […]