MLF Chapter & Verse
The Manchester Literature Festival Blog
-
Review : André Aciman
October 29, 2018
Our Young Digital Reporter Aisha Sodawala learns about setting and sentimentality at André Aciman’s event. André Aciman, author of the critically acclaimed novel turned movie ‘Call Me By Your Name’, writes about desire, absence and longing in amazing prose. He never ceases to amaze me with his intricate descriptions of passions linking to innocence. In […]
-
Review: Take 2: Terrance Hayes
October 29, 2018
Centre for New Writing student David Adamson finds Terrance Hayes’ event important and timely. “something happened / In Chicago & Cleveland & Baltimore & happens / Almost everywhere in this country every day” -Probably twilight makes blackness dangerous A few years ago the intended subject of these lines would perhaps have been slightly oblique, but […]
-
Review: Take 2: Filigree, Contemporary Black British Poetry
October 29, 2018
Centre for New Writing student David Adamson finds the future of British poetry bright. Tonight, in the surgically bright Performance Space of Manchester’s Central Library, three young poets talked about darkness. This wasn’t, however, the usual darkness that audiences of poetry nights are accustomed to. Instead, Momtaza Mehri, Victoria Adukwei Bulley and Rachel Long explored, […]
-
Review: Filigree and Terrance Hayes
October 29, 2018
Centre for New Writing student Thomas Lee finds different types of power in an evening of poetry. Dorothea Smartt steps onstage in the stark white Corinthian hatbox of the Manchester Central Library. The music of Johnny Nash and the O’Jays dies away, leaving only the faint strains of a violinist busking outside in St. Peter’s […]
-
Review: Carys Davies and Sarah Moss
October 29, 2018
Centre for New Writing student Matthew McGrogan hears about the breaking of boundaries at our event with Carys Davies and Sarah Moss. The sun emerged from behind the clouds as Katy Shaw welcomed Carys Davies and Sarah Moss to the International Burgess Foundation. Both novelists have recently celebrated the release of a new book — […]
-
Review: Rommi Smith & Dave Evans: Bodies of Colour
October 25, 2018
Our Young Digital Reporter Elizabeth Gibson finds Rommi Smith & Dave Evans’ response to the Bodies of Colour exhibition at The Whitworth unsettling and thought-provoking. A year ago, I took part in a performance workshop with Rommi Smith and, looking back, it was a defining moment for me as a spoken-word artist. She taught me […]
-
Review: Terrance Hayes
October 25, 2018
Our Young Digital Reporter Ruth Jones is magnetised by Terrance Hayes’ political poetry. Stepping out of the cold October evening air and into the bustling Manchester Central Library would make anyone excited to hear such an innovative poet’s new collection. The room was packed with people of all ages, buzzing with conversation and the anticipation […]
-
Review: Slay in Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible
October 25, 2018
Our Young Digital Reporter, Alice Richardson is inspired by Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebiené, authors of Slay in Your Lane. With this year’s Manchester Literature festival paying homage to so many inspirational women, Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebiené’s Slay in Your Lane: The Black Girl’s Bible is certainly a must-read body of work. Rivetingly raw […]
-
Review: Sasha Dugdale & Nick Laird
October 21, 2018
Young Digital Reporter Urussa Malik enjoys a quietly powerful poetry event. Co-director of the Centre for New Writing, John McAuliffe introduced two writers working closely with the idea of memory and history. Nick Laird has recently published a new collection of poetry, Feel Free, where the idea of being free and not free flew across his […]
-
Review: A Celebration of Muriel Spark
October 19, 2018
Young Digital Reporter Zarina Akhtar spends an evening celebrating the contradictions of Muriel Spark. It is on an autumnal Tuesday evening that we find ourselves at the Martin Harris Centre seated for a discussion about Muriel Spark. The audience, holding well-read and loved copies of Spark’s novels, including the The Prime of Jean Brodie, eagerly […]