New Writing North, The Listening Post

Here is the latest New Writing North The Listening Post newsletter:

June 2015 The Listening Post

Beryl West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds: 27 June-18 July Maxine Peake proves that she is not only a highly acclaimed actress but also an accomplished and compelling playwright with this play, first staged in 2014, celebrating the extraordinary sporting achievements of Morley cyclist Beryl Burton. Tickets £12-£23. To book and find more information visit www.wyp.org.uk/what's-on/2015/beryl/. Hebden Bridge Arts Festival Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire: 26 June-6 July Hebden Bridge Arts Festival offers a mixture of art, music, drama, craft, nature and literary events as the town becomes a stage for the whole family, with a veritable cacophony of street entertainment, books, theatre and music. For more information, see http://hebdenbridgeartsfestival.co.uk/.whatson/whats-glance/. Jennifer Klinec: The Temporary Bride Whitley Bay Customer First Centre: Thursday 2 July, 7pm Following a lifelong passion for food, Jennifer Klinec abandoned a corporate job and began a search for ancient recipes. Her quest led her to Iran, the secrets of the Persian kitchen and a love affair that pitted her against Iranian laws and customs. Join Jennifer for an evening discussing The Temporary Bride, a soaring memoir of being loved, being fed, and the struggle to belong inside one of the most fascinating nations on earth.Tickets: £3, refreshments included. Booking essential, please call 0191 643 5390. The Ted Hughes Poetry Festival Mexborough, Doncaster: 3-5 July The festival offers a special chance to explore Hughes’s formative years in Mexborough while also engaging with performances by some of the best contemporary poets around, including Helen Mort, Kim Moore, Ian Duhig, Zaffar Kunial and Northern Writers’ Awards 2015 winner Steve Ely. Tickets are available for individual events or a full festival pass. For full details see www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ted-hughes-poetry-festival-tickets-16748278552. In Conversation: A riverside walk with Michael Chaplin and Mikhail Karikis South Shields: Saturday 4 July, 2.30pm-4.30pm Join writer Michael Chaplin and artist Mikhail Karikis on a riverside walk, revealing the historical legacy and landscape of the shipping and ship-building industry in South Shields. Chaplin and Karikis will be in conversation as they lead you on a walking tour revealing stories, anecdotes and facts of this fascinating area which have creatively inspired the writer and artist in different ways. Michael is the author of Tyne View, an exploration of the social history, culture and soul of the river, published by New Writing North and the Port of Tyne, and featuring contributions from artist Birtley Aris, photographer Charles Bell, and poet Christy Ducker. Tickets: £4. For more information and to book, see www.tynesidecinema.co.uk/whats-on/art/events-exhibitions/riverside-walk. Vane Women poetry reading Poetry & Pints, Georgian Theatre, Richmond: Monday 6 July, 7pm Newcastle City Library: Wednesday 8 July, 6.30pm Vane Women, a lively collective of writing, performing and publishing women, read from their latest poetry publication: Blue Horse by Joanna Boulter. Both events free. To follow this event, and other events hosted by the Vane Women, see www.facebook.com/pages/Vane-Women/298958800161474. TEST DEPT: DS30 at the AV Festival The Miners’ Hall, Redhills, Durham: Thursday 9 July, 5.45pm-7pm AV Festival presents a special screening of Test Dept’s acclaimed film marking 30 years since the 1984-85 miners’ strike at The Miners’ Hall in Durham during the week of the Durham Miners’ Gala. DS30 is a political collage of sound and image by the music group Test Dept including archive film footage of mining communities with material from Test Dept’s own archive relating to the 1984-85 strike, when they collaborated with local activists and mining communities in support of striking miners. The film is followed by a Q&A session with members of Test Dept, Dave Temple (author of The Big Meeting: A History of the Durham Miners’ Gala) and Dr Katy Shaw (author of Mining the Meaning: Cultural Representations of the 1984-85 UK Miners’ Strike). For more information, see www.testdeptds30.co.uk. Free admission. Durham Moot Palace Green Library, Durham: Sunday 12 July Durham Book Festival and Durham Miners’ Association, in association with Palace Green Library and The People’s Bookshop, are joining forces to create an exciting space for thoughtful discussion following the Miners’ Gala. This event will host a relevant debate about the North East’s social, cultural and political position in the media and society in general. Speakers include Owen Jones, Sean O’Brien, Cllr Simon Henig, Alex Niven, Ian Wylie, Heather Wood, Ros Rigby, Dave Temple, Julia Heslop and Dr Christian Liddy. For details see www.newwritingnorth.com/news_details-durham-moot-sunday-12-july-2015-details-3321.html. Tickets: £6/£4 concs for each session, or £15/£10 concs for the whole afternoon. Book online at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/durham-moot-2015-tickets-17335713586. Joe Abercrombie: Half a War Waterstones, Gateshead: Wednesday 13 July, 1pm Joe Abercrombie brings the stunning, richly imagined Shattered Sea series to a close with Half a War. Meet the fantasy author when he signs copies of his new book. For more information, visit www.waterstones.com/events/meet-joe-abercrombie/gateshead. Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate: 16-19 July With Frances Brody, Lee Child, MC Beaton, Mark Billingham, Anne Cleeves, Lisa Gardner, Arnaldur Indridason, Eddie Izzard, Val McDermind, Sara Paretsky and Sally Wainwright. For a full programme and to book, see http://harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/crime/2015-festival-events/. Helen Cadbury: Bones in the Nest Waterstones, York: Thursday 23 July, 7pm Described by Mark Billingham as ‘a hugely assured and gripping debut’, Helen Cadbury’s novel, To Catch a Rabbit, was one of the winners of the inaugural New Writing North/Moth Northern Crime Competition. Now Sean Denton makes a highly anticipated return in Cadbury’s new novel about a murder on the Chasebridge Estate. Free event, but tickets must be reserved by phoning 01904 620784 or emailing york@waterstones.com. NiddFest Upper Nidderdale, North Yorkshire: 24-26 July NiddFest’s patron is Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, who presents an intimate evening of nature, words and song with the National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke at 7pm-10pm on Friday 24 July. Other events include the Wishing Tree, hosted by Michelle Harrison, a published ghost story and YA novelist and editor in children’s literature at Oxford University Press. Piers Torday also discusses his new book, and how his childhood encounter with Roald Dahl inspired him to become a writer, which led to his success in children’s fiction and winning The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. For more information and to book tickets, see www.niddfest.com. Deadline for the next issue The next edition of The Listening Post covering August's literature events will go out in late July. If you have events that you would like to submit for inclusion you will need to send information by 20 July to laurafraine@newwritingnorth.com. While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this newsletter is correct at the time of going to press, things do change, frequently at the last minute and very often without our knowledge.