MLF Chapter & Verse
The Manchester Literature Festival Blog
-
Review: Reader, I Married Him
October 31, 2016
Festival blogger Abi Hynes headed to Central Library to hear award-winning authors Nadifa Mohamed and Tracy Chevalier reading their stories to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth. As it turns out, I have some very strong opinions about Jane Eyre. It’s one of those books that I have reread so often since childhood that […]
-
Young Digital Reporter Review: The Good Immigrant
October 31, 2016
Our blogger Melissa Brakel reports from Gorilla, where Himesh Patel, Miss L, Inua Ellams and Nikesh Shukla, editor of The Good Immigrant, performed some of their powerful and funny essays from the book. ‘Is this for The Good Immigrant?’ I’m dubious, standing in a queue beneath the railway arches. It feels as though I’m going […]
-
Review: The Whole Kahani
October 31, 2016
Festival blogger Amy McCauley headed to Whitworth Art Gallery and was moved and inspired by an afternoon of new fiction from The Whole Kahani writing collective. The question of shifting and multiple identities is one we must all negotiate in our rapidly changing world. As Reshma Ruia, founder of writing group ‘The Whole Kahani says, […]
-
Young Digital Reporter Review: Gothic Literature Walking Tour
October 26, 2016
“That’s what gothic is all about – turning the world upside down.”: MLF’s Young Digital Reporter Abbie Phillips discovered ‘the hidden underbelly of Manchester’s city streets’. This time of the year is the perfect time to read and celebrate gothic literature. Not only because the nights roll in sooner, but because the transition between summer and winter […]
-
Review: Anne Enright
October 26, 2016
“You don’t really know why you’re going to write something the way you do until afterwards.”: Our blogger Phil Olsen headed to Hallé St Peter’s to hear Anne Enright reading and discussing her latest novel The Green Road, at this year’s Festival. Standing under the arches and the half-dome of Hallé St Peters, Centre for New […]
-
Review: An Evening With Jackie Kay
October 21, 2016
“The business of being a writer and a reader is like a call and response – it’s like the blues. You throw something out and then stories come back to you.”: Our blogger Abi Hynes is thrilled by Jackie Kay’s writing. I don’t know what I was expecting from my first in-real-life encounter with poet, author, […]
-
Review: Sungju Lee
October 21, 2016
Festival blogger Amy McCauley headed to Central Library to hear Sungju Lee read and discuss his memoir, co-written by author and journalist Susan Elizabeth McClellan, Every Falling Star. What do we imagine when we think of North Korea? Perhaps a chubby cartoon of Kim Jong-Un astride a nuclear missile; or a ‘Team America’ style caricature of Kim Jong-Il […]
-
Review: Lionel Shriver
October 21, 2016
Our blogger Eli Regan reports from Central Library, where Lionel Shriver, author of a dozen previous books including We Need to Talk About Kevin, discussed new novel The Mandibles with Sarfraz Manzoor. What happens when society and Western privilege collapse? Should we be sad at a future prospect of a mainly Spanish-speaking American president? Will art in […]
-
Review: Jonathan Safran Foer
October 21, 2016
‘I have two identities, one as a writer who makes mistakes and one as an editor who goes in afterwards to tidy up and hunt out the typos.’: Our blogger Phil Olsen was illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer who read from his new novel Here I Am, and discussed his writing and life with Jeanette Winterson. Pausing […]
-
Review: Olivia Laing
October 21, 2016
‘People have lived with shame and isolation, and have succeeded, and we need to be reminded of that’: Our blogger Natalie Kane reports on our recent in-conversation event with Olivia Laing. As Manchester is falling headfirst into autumn, into darker hours with emptier trees, a warm shuffle of coated people make their way into Anthony […]