Karen's blog: Birmingham Literature Festival, October 2018

Friday 31 August 2018

Birmingham Literature Festival, October 2018

With details of Birmingham Literature Festival in October:

October festival: programme released

Hello,

Welcome to the October 2018 Birmingham Literature Festival.

I'm delighted to reveal the line-up for our October 2018 festival, which will run from 4th to 14th October in venues across Birmingham city centre.

Come and join us for 10 days of inspiring, thought-provoking and entertaining events, which not only showcase great books and writers from the UK and abroad, but also create space to bring people together for great conversation and ideas.

We're kicking off the festival with two National Poetry Day events on Thursday 4th October, featuring local poets Liz Berry, Roy McFarlane and Jane Commane. We'll also be presenting poetry from nine Caribbean diaspora poets included as part of a new anthology called Unwritten: Caribbean poems after the First World War (co-commisioned by BBC Contains Strong Language, the British Council and 14-18 Now). Our Unwritten event will include readings from UK and Caribbean poets including Jay Bernard, Malika Booker, Karen McCarthy Woolf and Ishion Hutchinson.

We are thrilled to also be working again with independant publishers And Other Stories, who will be showcasing four UK and international women writers and translators they are publishing in 2018, as well as offering one-to-one fiction surgeries for writers.

Don't miss stories of life-changing travel and adventure with writers Abi Andrews, Katharine Norbury and Alys Fowler in our event The Call of the Wild, as well as new tales from home by local and regional writers as part of the Hometown Tales event, and the launch of the brand new Book of Birmingham.

We are also very excited to present award-winning poet and theatre maker Jackie Hagen's celebrated show This Is Not A Safe Space, which challenges the relentless scapegoating and stereotyping of working class disabled people in today’s society. Celebrating the weird, the wonky, the unruly and the resilient!

As part of our October festival, it has also been a joy to work with our Guest Curator Sathnam Sanghera, who has curated some very special events with key writers from the West Midlands. You can find out more about Sathnam's events featuring Caitlin Moran and Sali Hughes, Nigel Slater and Ravinder Bhogal and Jonathan Coe below.

All our events can be booked online, or you can call Box Office on 0121 245 4455.

We hope you feel as excited by this programme as we are, and we look forward to seeing you in October!

Antonia Beck

Festival Director

View Programme

Just a few highlights...

Behold, America

by Sarah Churchwell

‘The American dream is dead,’ Donald Trump said when announcing his candidacy for president in 2015. How would he revive it? By putting ‘America First’. The phrase has become the anthem of his presidency and is adored by his supporters.

Find out more about the fallacy of this anthem with one of the foremost commentators on US politics and history, Sarah Churchwell.

Sunday 14 October, 1pm

The STUDIO, Birmingham REP

Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs)

Buy Tickets

Nigel Slater & Ravinder Bhogal

Sponsored by Birmingham CIty University

Join cooks and writers Nigel Slater and Ravinder Bhogal as they discuss their love of food and their passion for writing.

Nigel Slater is a cook who writes. The author of a collection of bestselling books and presenter of nine BBC television series, Nigel has been the food columnist for The Observer for twenty five years.

Nigel does very few public events and we're honoured he wanted to return to the West Midlands (he grew up in Wolverhampton) to headline this very special event.

Sunday 14 October, 3.30pm

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Tickets, £15 / £12 (concs)