From now until February 2012, Birmingham Libraries are setting free 1,000 copies of Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson for people to read, review and pass on to a friend in the Birmingham Big City Read.
For more info, follow the link to Birmingham’s Big City Read and grab a book while they’re still available (if they’ve not all gone yet). The folks behind this are Transworld Publishers, in partnership with The Reading Agency. The plan is to build up a discussion about the book over here.
Birmingham-based independent publisher, The Gentlemen Press, has just launched a competition for West Midlands writers aged 13-21.
Open for entries from 12th September – 31st October, the judges will be accepting for short stories between 500 and 2,000 words in length. A selection of winning entrants will see their stories published in an anthology. The book launch for this collection will take place at The Book Barge, a bookshop uniquely located aboard a narrowboat on the Birmingham canal.
The panel of judges will include novelists Jean Ure, who was first published at the age of sixteen, and David Belbin, famous for his edgy stories dealing with crime and the lives of young adults.
A nod to Leonardo Morgado for flagging up this one.
Speakers include Sarah Ballard, literary agent whose clients include Julian Barnes and Blake Morrison, Catheryn Kilgarriff of independent publishers Marion Boyars, and Luke Brown of Birmingham based Tindal St Press. Performers include poets from Nine Arches, Dan Holloway of Year Zero Writers, and stand-up philosopher Matthew Hammond.
Tickets here and more info here.
The Hubb is another one of those places in Birmingham that I wish I could get down to a bit more often than I do. There’s another interesting-looking event on this Friday that I can’t make it to.
The blurb from the press release says:
Soul City Arts welcomes acclaimed author, Na’ima B. Robert, to the city of Birmingham for the first time. She will be launching her controversial new novel about Zimbabwe’s land reform programme, ‘Far From Home’, exclusively at The Hubb.
In addition to discussing some of the original ideas behind her new book, Nai’ma B. Robert will be speaking about her inspiration as a writer and her journey to becoming a published author at Birmingham’s exciting Hubb Arts centre in Sparkbrook, Birmingham.
The Spring Thing is a short festival hosted by Birmingham Book Festival, on 9 & 10 April with workshops, performances and readings going on throughout both days.
There is crime (and cake!) with Sophie Hannah, performance poetry with Nine Arches Press, the Birmingham Poet Laureate and guests, John Hegley, workshops, pigeons, personae, city gardening with the BBC’s Alys Fowler, the launch of David Lodge’s new novel A Man of Parts, new voices in fiction with Tindal Street Press and intriguing audio installation Bodies In The Library.
They’ll also have a Festival Bookshop in the conservatoire from 11am – 3.30pm.
If you fancy some freebies, they seem to be having a bit of a giveaway on their Twitter at the moment, plus they currently have 10% off booking for festival events.
On 5 March it’s World Book Night, and as the nation prepare to give away 1 million books, Birmingham Central Library and The Birmingham Poetry Ultras are holding a couple of celebratory events, with a line up of writers, storytellers and poets.
Birmingham Central Library
From 6.30pm – 8.45pm, at Birmingham Library Theatre, three of the city’s best-selling writers RJ Ellory, Mike Gayle and Catherine O’Flynn will be joining readers and book givers to celebrate books, libraries and reading.
Free tickets for this are available from the Box Office on (0121) 303 2323 or from Central Library reception.
Saturday Night Reader then takes outside Central Library place from 9 – 10pm, as literary fans are invited to join Birmingham Poet Laureate, Roy McFarlane, former Young Poet Laureate Matt Windle, storyteller Katrice Horsley, and local writer Paul McDonald for an hour of rambunctious storytelling, poetry, laughs and free books.
Birmingham Poetry Ultras
Hosting an evening of poetry appreciation and discussion, Birmingham Poetry Ultras will be in The Old Moseley Arms, Balsall Heath, from 8pm.
They’ll also be giving out free copies of their selected book, Seamus Heaney’s “New Selected Poems 1966-1987”, on a first come first served basis.
This Saturday 29 Jan, Ikon will be hosting a free creative writing workshop in Erdington, joined by acclaimed writer Mandy Ross.
Inspired by historical photographs of nineteenth century Erdington resident Sir Benjamin Stone, creative writers and storytellers are invited to explore stories behind these photographs.
Ikon have had a rummage through the archives and collected images from the turn of the 20th century, including the Erdington orphanage, a society afternoon tea, agricultural workers and the inner workings of Big Ben.
All ages are welcome to drop by, with no booking needed. The workshop with take place from 12 – 3pm at Erdington Library, Orphanage Road, Erdington.
If you can’t make it on Saturday, fear not, Ikon are returning to Erdington in a few weeks, with another workshop on 19 February.
Birmingham Book Festival‘s writer networking event, The Writers’ Toolkit is taking place on 20 November at South Birmingham College from 10.30am – 4pm.
The event is their third annual gathering, attracting both emerging and established writers along with those involved in the writing industry, including publishers, producers, agents and various organisations. The day is a great opportunity to learn about the business side of being a writer and to network through a mix of panel discussions and Q&A sessions.
For more information on who’s attending and booking, take a look at the Writing West Midlands website.
The deadline for booking is Friday 12 November, and costs £32 (£26 concession).
Sssssssshhhh! Get your reading specs out because after a rare sighting, the Secret Library Card is back in circulation, hidden in books at Birmingham Central Library.
Check the last post from the Secret Librarians for the cryptic clue which will lead you to the current location of the Secret Library Card, where you can take up the task of the ‘Secret Re-shelving Ritual’.
The DIY Times is a new zine from the folks at Cut Out Shop.
A 16 page bargain with a screen printed cover designed by the lovely Alex Curtis, featuring interviews with the lady herself, Ammo Magazine, Southsea DIY and Sauna Youth
Only £2 from here.
Writing West Midlands started last year:
We are a new organisation designed to encourage, promote and actively facilitate literature development activity in the West Midlands.
On this site you will find resources and links to Events, Opportunities for Writers, information about our Education programme, (Write On!), our annual Literature Festival (Birmingham Book Festival), Advice for Writers and more
The Story Exchange is the visually enchanting invention of Birmingham-based Needle & Thread Theatre, and will be captivating story-lovers, story-tellers, and strays over four days in the Created in Birmingham shop at Bullring from Thursday 13 May until 16 May.
Here’s the blurb (pun intended) for you:
You are invited to browse, peruse and explore the leafy pages of the sumptuous second-hand books. Once you’ve found a treasure to take away we won’t require your pounds or pennies as payment, all we ask in return is a story of your own – fairy-tales; folk-tales; fond memories and funny stories from everyday life are all welcome.
Artistic director Natalie Wilson can be contacted for more info at needleandthreadtheatre@yahoo.co.uk or on 07530 939 380.
Birmingham Book Festival are having an extra one-day festival on 29 May this year. The line-up of events (shamelessly nicked from their website) looks like this:
It’ll be held at Birmingham Conservatoire, there’s more detail here and tickets are on sale.
Bearing in mind their hit rate recently, it might be worth keeping an eye out for the Indeterminate Creatures by Alan Apperley, soon to be released into the world by Tindal Street Press (on 25 March, as I understand it). It’ll be the one with the cover that looks something like this:
From the blurb accompanying this news we learn that the book is:
an insightful and inventive turning thirty novel with a wonderful cast of eccentric characters – and a remarkable surprise from history.
And that the author is:
Alan Apperley is Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Wolverhampton University and a member of 1980s cult post-punk band The Nightingales, who played more Peel sessions than any other band excluding The Fall. The Nightingales re-formed in 2004, with Alan on lead guitar. INDETERMINATE CREATURES is his delightfully witty and erudite debut novel.
Amazon’s description of the book is a little fuller:
Hope and Michael celebrate their first anniversary together with rain-soaked, drink-fuelled sex that results in conception. She’s a librarian at the local university; he’s a stock controller at a plastics company with a fascination for the migration of the Monarch butterfly and for his best friend’s girlfriend, the copper-fringed Evette. Hope and Michael view the nine months ahead with honesty, anxiety, duplicity and excitement but, most of all, very differently form one another indeed.
Ooh, it’s a compelling title. They’re not so secret as to not invite people though:
Join us at the Solihull Arts Complex this spring and delve into a secret library of contemporary artists’ books with an exhibition dedicated to the genre.
Artists’ books and book works, installation and book-related performances will all be showcased
The Secret Library will open on 8 March and loiter inconspicuously until 8 May. Artists involved include Earle D. Swope, Francis Elliott and Cas Serafin, Frans Baake, Jackie Batey, Jatinder Bains, John Bently, Mike Nicholson, Paul Laidler, Sally Alatalo, Sarah Bodman, Sarah Noreen, Simon Goode, Stephen Fowler, Tom Sowden.
There’ll be a Solihull Artists’ Book fair on 20 March too, featuring those who work in book arts and related disciplines (illustrators, publishers, etc). Lined up for that so far are Alix Swan, Artist Book Collective @ BIAD, Catalogue of Concern, David Lasnier, Emma Hardicker, Hoi Polloi, Karoline Rerrie, Lindsay Jenkinson | Gemma Frearson, Rag-and-Bone Shop Books, The Yellow Door Bindery, [insertspace].
