Manchester Literature Festival
Manchester Literature Festival
The fourth Manchester Literature Festival was held between 15 and 25 October 2009, with a 'trailblazer' event featuring author Margaret Atwood taking place on 1 September.
The annual event has grown in both size and reputation year on year, initially building upon the legacy of the Manchester Poetry Festival. It offers audiences unique opportunities to experience live, high-quality literature, celebrating the power of creative writing across a wide range of media.
Arts Council England provided nearly £57 thousand in sponsorship, with Manchester City Council contributing a further £17,500 and various marketing and venue support. Other cultural partners included Chetham's School of Music and The Whitworth Art Gallery.
The Festival had four main aims:
- To introduce Manchester audiences to the best new writing from across the world.
- To commission and showcase innovative new literature from writers in the North West region.
- To provide opportunities for Manchester residents to actively engage with literature and culture.
- To raise Manchester's profile as a city of culture and to establish the Festival as part of its annual programme.
How does this project carry out the Cultural Ambition?
Culturally Distinctive
The 2009 programme featured an impressive line-up of national and international authors whose new work was showcased as part of the festival. Contributions from household names ensured a high profile event worthy of Manchester's position as a cultural leader.
- The Festival was preceded by an event at Manchester Cathedral, marking the launch of acclaimed writer Margaret Atwood's book, The Year of the Flood. A fusion of live reading and musical performance, the event was also a charity fundraiser, aiming to raise awareness of environmental issues and endangered species. Manchester was the second stop on an extensive international tour, preceded only by a performance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The innovative nature of Atwood's project attracted substantial media coverage, and the Manchester event was an early sell-out.
- Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl novels, read from his most recent work. And Another Thing is the fifth sequel to Douglas Adams' The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series. Colfer won the commission for the novel, which was published to mark the 30th anniversary of the sci-fi series' publication. The reading was presented in association with Manchester Comedy Festival and Manchester Science Festival.
- Author and critic Martin Amis has become a prominent literary figure in Manchester since his appointment as Professor of Creative Writing at The University of Manchester's Centre for New Writing in early 2007. For his appearance at the 2009 Literature Festival he was joined by novelist Will Self to discuss the relationship between sex and literature, continuing Manchester's association with new work and modern literary debate.
Community Inspired
- The Festival opened with a schools-only event at Borders in North Manchester, led by Tom Palmer. Based around his popular Football Detective series, the event combined football, detective work and literary knowledge to provide an enjoyable and accessible route into literature.
- Commissioned by the Festival, though not as part of the advertised programme, was a workshop on reading to and writing for children for inmates at HMP Manchester. The project was designed to enhance literacy skills and proved to be very popular. It is hoped that this successful pilot will pave the way for future collaborations with the prison.
Creative Investor
- The fourth Manchester Blog Awards was organised in association with Kate Feld, Manchester Digital Development Agency and Arts Council England. Over 200 blogs were nominated – more than double the number for the 2008 awards – and the website attracted 24,000 unique viewers. The resulting publicity and increased traffic raised the profile, not only for contributors to the Manchester blogosphere, but also of the city as a frontrunner in digital and social media.
- A tour of the city centre featuring performances by five writers from the Rainy City Stories website was adapted to a DIY tour through a downloadable map and podcasts. The interactive site, which effectively merges narrative storytelling with modern digital technology, continues to attract large audiences, with nearly 200,000 visitors to date.
Talent City
- An event in association with BBC writersroom provided an opportunity for aspiring script-writers to learn from Jimmy McGovern, the Liverpool-born creator of Cracker and The Lakes. McGovern took questions from the audience of this fully subscribed free event, offering insight into the industry for emerging talent.
- The six finalists for Is There a Novelist in the House? held in association with Commonword, pitched their novels to a panel of industry experts who provided the writers and audience with valuable insider tips. Unpublished novelists living or working in the North of England were invited to enter the competition and all the shortlisted applicants were given detailed feedback on their work, while the winner received £250 and a professional mentor for their work. The competition will run again in 2010 with the continued aim of giving aspiring writers from the area a rare break into the industry.
