MLF Chapter & Verse
The Manchester Literature Festival Blog
-
Q&A: Jami Attenberg
October 9, 2015
Jami Attenberg is the author of The New York Times bestseller The Middlesteins. Her new book Saint Mazie brings to life the big-hearted Queen of The Bowery who held court from the ticket booth of The Venice movie theatre. Weaving together fictionalised diaries, writings and interviews, Attenberg has constructed a portrait of a remarkable woman and […]
-
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 […]
-
Review: Margaret Atwood at The Royal Exchange
September 30, 2015
Chapter & Verse’s Canadian Literature correspondent Robert Cutforth enjoys a characteristically dry and intellectually stimulating afternoon in the company of the far-seeing author, our Patron Saint of The Future. When the Manchester Literature Festival first announced that Margaret Atwood was coming to town, I knew it would be popular with other reviewers, so I bagsied […]
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
Review: Anthony Horowitz at Central Library
September 14, 2015
Festival Blogger David Hartley sees the much-loved author of books for children, young people and adults launch his new James Bond novel in one of this year’s Preview events. Fresh from a mild media tussle, a cheerful and engaging Anthony Horowitz took to the performance space in Manchester Central Library to talk all things 007. […]
-
Review: Steven Pinker, The Sense of Style
September 9, 2015
Festival blogger Jonti Dalal-Small enjoys a candid and illuminating evening with author and Harvard Psychology Professor Steven Pinker, the first of our Preview events for 2015 The last time I saw cognitive theorist Steven Pinker speak, he was in conversation with Rebecca Goldstein, a philosophical novelist. She is also his wife. They formed quite a double-act, […]