MLF Chapter & Verse
The Manchester Literature Festival Blog
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Q&A: Mai Al-Nakib
September 30, 2015
Kuwaiti writer Mai Al-Nakib‘s first book, the short story collection The Hidden Light of Objects is unforgettable. Imbued with a sense of childlike wonder and a vivid immediacy, the stories seek out the places where everyday life intersects with the unconscious and linger there. The book won the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s 2014 First Book […]
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Q&A: Laura Dockrill
September 28, 2015
Laura Dockrill is the author of the Darcy Burdock series, as well as Mistakes in the Underground and Ugly Shy Girl. Her new book for Young Adult readers is mermaid coming of-age tale Lorali. She’s a prolific writer, performer and artist whose work takes in a wide variety of artforms and audiences. Michael Rosen said […]
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Q&A: Mary Costello
September 23, 2015
Mary Costello is the author of a slim but powerful book of short stories, The China Factory, and now, a similarly compact novel, Academy Street, about an Irishwoman who emigrates to New York, which The Times called ‘an exceptional first novel.’ Her work has drawn comparisons to John Williams and Faulkner; Anne Enright said ‘her […]
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Q&A: Stuart Evers
September 23, 2015
Stuart Evers‘ first short story collection, Ten Stories About Smoking, won the London Book Award and was praised in The Irish Times as ‘touching, true and shocking. Here is a book that not only makes more sense of life, it delights the mind’. His novel, If This is Home, was published in 2012 to great […]
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Q&A: Polly Samson
September 21, 2015
Polly Samson is the author of two short story collections including Sunday Times Fiction Choice of the Year Perfect Lives, and has written lyrics for three bestselling albums. Her new novel The Kindness was inspired by Milton’s Paradise Lost and focuses on a couple who give up all they have to be together. The Independent […]
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Q&A: Benjamin Wood
September 17, 2015
Benjamin Wood is the author of two novels: The Bellwether Revivals, which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth and Costa prizes, and new novel The Ecliptic. A beautifully written and engrossing story that takes us from painters living the bohemian life in 1960s London to an otherworldly settlement of artists and writers in Turkey. It captures […]
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Catching up with our Festival Directors
June 8, 2015
If we’ve gone a bit quiet on the blogging front, it’s because we’re busy at work finalising our tenth anniversary programme. We grabbed a few minutes with Festival Co-Directors Sarah-Jane Roberts and Cathy Bolton to ask them about what the day-to-day work of running the Festival is like, what inspired their love of literature and what we can expect from […]
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Five questions for Evie Wyld
October 4, 2014
The author of two powerful, beautifully-written novels – All The Birds, Singing and After the Fire, a Still Small Voice – Evie Wyld was named one of Granta’s Best British Novelists Under 40. We caught up with Evie to ask her about the books she loves and what she’s reading now before her event […]
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Five questions for Emma Jane Unsworth
September 23, 2014
Emma Jane Unsworth’s first novel Hungry, the Stars and Everything (Hidden Gem) won a Betty Trask Award from the Society of Authors and was shortlisted for the Portico Prize 2012. Her short story ‘I Arrive First’ was included in The Best British Short Stories 2012 (Salt). She has worked as a journalist, a columnist for […]
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Five questions for Matt Haig
September 17, 2014
A prolific writer for both adults and children, Matt Haig‘s award-winning novels include The Last Family in England, The Possession of Mr Cave and The Radleys. Matt’s new book, The Humans, concerns a professor who finds himself at odds with the human race. It was described by The Times as ‘wonderfully funny, gripping and inventive.’ […]