festival
Fiction & Food
4 months ago
by Birmingham Book Festival
in birmingham, book, books, festival, fiction, literature events, News, novel, october, writing
In anticipation of the forthcoming Birmingham Food Fest, which overlaps with us by a few days, Radar Magazine asked Festival Director Sara Beadle to get thinking about the relationship between food and fiction.
Here, Sara shares with Radar’s readers six of her favourite Foodie fiction moments. Yummy.
All Night at The Museum
4 months ago
A huge well done to all those who braved, and survived, Saturday’s all night writing workshop.
The fourth of these we have run, it is so pleasing to see that people still have the desire and courage to experiment with their creativity in this way.
From 11pm to 5am we wrote, drank coffee, snacked on unhealthy sugary things and wandered inquisitively around the warren of warehouses and stores that make up the Museum Collections Centre in Birmingham.
It was a long night, but a staggering experience to be surrounded by artefac
ts as eclectically arranged as these, many of which originate from the West Midlands.
Over on our October Festival Blog, our student journalists are beginning the long process of writing this up, with more detailed interviews, images and examples of creative writing to follow.
Here, on our Facebook Page, you can view a gallery of images of the night’s activities. You can also look back over our twitter feed for snippets of information and pictures posted as we went along.
You can also catch a piece about the workshop on BBC Midlands Today on Monday 3 October 2011 at 1.30pm and 6.30pm.
On The Blog: Interview with Festival Book Author Jenn Ashworth & All Night Writing
4 months ago
Our fantastic team of student journalists have posted this interview with festival author Jenn Ashworth, whose book Cold Light is this year’s featured book. See Jenn on Sunday 16th October 2011.
The blog will be gaining momentum as we hurtle towards the festival – less than a week to go!
Make sure you bookmark it, or follow us on twitter (@bhambookfest) to see new content as soon as it arrives. News, reviews, previews and more.
The blogging team are also bravely joining us for tomorrow night’s All Night At The Museum, an exercise in writing and sleep deprivation, with writer Judith Allnatt at the helm. We’ll be uploading pictures and updates throughout the night. We will also be tweeting. If you prefer your warm bed on a Saturday night, you can catch up with the all nighters on BBC Midlands Today on Monday afternoon and evening (and later online).
This workshop is now sold out, but there are four more chances to develop your own writing before the festival is over. Radio Writing, Journalism, Ideas and Fiction are all covered. See the diary for more details.
The Birmingham Book Festival 2011 Programme Coming Very Soon
6 months ago
THE TIME IS ALMOST UPON US…
The Festival programme is complete and will soon be winging its way to you (if you are on our mailing list) and will be available as a pdf here from Wednesday 10 August 2011. You will also be able to peruse the events diary and click through to our box office here, or go to our box office directly once events are on sale. We are using MAC’s ticketing services – and we are confident that this will make your booking experience smooth and cost effective – there are no booking fees!
Once the programme is released look out for special offers, giveaways and more – follow us on twitter (@bhambookfest) and like our Facebook page to get the latest.
WIN TICKETS TO SEE OUR FESTIVAL BOOK AUTHOR, JENN ASHWORTH.
We are delighted to be featuring Jenn Ashworth’s second novel, Cold Light as our Festival Book. This means we will be featuring Jenn in the festival and talking about the book here. We’d love to know what you think of Cold Light.
We are offering you the chance to win tickets to meet Jenn and hear her talk about the book on 16th October 2011. To win, send us your review of Cold Light, (no more than 300 words, please) via joanne@birminghambookfestival.org. The best two reviews will win a pair of tickets to meet Jenn at the event, get your books signed and ask her any burning questions you have about Cold Light! You have until 1 October 2011 to submit your review.
If you don’t have a copy of Cold Light, you can buy one here.
Good Luck!
Are you Birmingham’s next Poet Laureate?
6 months ago
Birmingham Poet Laureate Roy McFarlane performs with Amsterdam City Poet Frank Starik
It’s that time of the year again. Birmingham Libraries are currently seeking the next Birmingham Poet Laureate.
The new laureate will compete for the title against other hopefuls, performing around the city on National Poetry Day (6 October) and ending up at our Festival Launch for a special live announcement that evening.
Full Details about the scheme and how to apply can be found here. The deadline is 12th August 2011.
This is a unique opportunity to get involved with the writing community in Birmingham and promote poetry in the city. Good luck!
The Great West Midlands Poetry Relay – Sat 23 July 2011
6 months ago
To celebrate the Cultural Olympiad Open Weekend on Saturday 23rd July 2011, ten poets will complete a poetry relay across ten locations in the West Midlands.. This will take the form of public events in different venues, including stations, libraries, Polesworth Park, Hatton Country World, a motorway service station and the Pie and Ale Pub in Stafford.
At the first location, poet A will write and perform to an audience the first segment of a collective poem. They will then join a team minibus and be taken to location two. There poet B will read the first segment and continue in that vein, writing their own segment. Then poets A and B will each perform to an audience. They will then be taken to the third location, where they will be joined by Poet C. The team of poets and segments of the poem will grow until ten segments and ten events are completed. All the finished pieces will then be attached to ten racing pigeons from Project Pigeon who will be released to carry the ten segments of the poem back to their Birmingham loft. The order in which they arrive back will determine the final manifestation of the poem.
| 8am | Stoke On Trent, Railway Station, Booking Hall, ST4 2AA | http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/sot/details.html |
| 9.15am | Burton On Trent, Library | http://www.istaffordshire.co.uk/profile/282991/Burton-on-Trent/Burton-Library/ |
| 10.15am | Polesworth Abbey Green Park – as part of Love Abbey Green event with Touch FM, B78 1DU | http://www.loveparksweek.org.uk/Whats-on-detail.aspx?EventID=85eb71fa-46e0-40cb-a6db-1c9abc2266e8&County=Warwickshire |
| 11.40am | Hatton Country World, Toffee Shop, CV35 8XA | http://www.hattonworld.com/shoppingvillage/ |
| 13.10pm | Worcester Arts Workshop – Cafe Bliss, WR1 1RU | http://www.worcesterartsworkshop.org.uk/aboutus.asp?menuID=Cafe%20Bliss |
| 14.30pm | Malvern Hills – British Camp (Herefordshire Beacon) car park | http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=wr136dw&hl=en&ll=52.063573,-2.345753&spn=0.018864,0.038581&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=18.61907,39.506836&z=15 |
| 16.05pm | Bromyard Town Green – behind the Public Hall near St Peter’s Churchyard HR7 4DU |
www.herefordshire.gov.uk/communityhalls/chd_bromyardpublichall.aspx |
| 17.15pm | Highley – Severn Centre forecourt, WV16 6JG | http://www.severncentre.co.uk/index.htm |
| 18:20pm | Telford Odeon, Forgegate, TF3 4NE | http://www.nationalvenues.co.uk/shropshire/telford/telfordodeon.htm |
| 19:35pm | The Pie and Ale House, Crabbery Street, Stafford, ST16 2BA | http://www.pieandale.com/ |
Here’s a google map of the day!
Come along to celebrate the Cultural Olympiad and get involved in the creation of the relay poem which will be inspired by each place the poets visit and the concept of a relay race!
Follow the relay on twitter (@gwmpr) and see where we are along our route!
Post Spring Thing: The Newspaper, and the final event to look forward to!
9 months ago
Here is the final Issue of the Daily Spring Thing. Spring Thing Newspaper issue 4
We still have one more event to go: the fabulous Mo Hayder tomorrow, Thursday 14th April, at 7pm, Birmingham Conservatoire, £6.50/£5, tickets available on the door. More information here. Please join us in celebrating the end of this Spring Season of events. There will be wine and a final chance to buy books – including Mo’s, which will be discounted from the RRP, of course.
There is also a great review of our Project Pigeon workshop here.
More pictures, reviews and thoughts to come…
The Spring Thing is tomorrow! Win A Workshop..
10 months ago
Yes, we wondered too…
Yes, we wondered too…
There are now just twenty four hours between us and the first event of The Spring Thing 2011.
It has been a busy week here in the Festival office, putting finishing touches to our plans, designing and making our big version of Magnetic Poetry (and we will be posting pictures of your poems on twitter at #bbfspringthing) and a few other things just for fun (because you can’t spend *all* your time between events in the Bookshop…). 
So even if you are just passing through on Saturday or Sunday, there will be something to see and people to say hello to – so please do stop by! We will be based in the main foyer area of Birmingham Conservatoire from 11am-9pm both days.
You know all about the events by now, but just incase you need a refresher, the programme is here. Tickets are still available for most things (although some are going fast!), and you are welcome to buy them on the door. To avoid disappointment you are welcome to get tickets to any of the weekend’s events at our Ticket Desk within the Conservatoire from 11am Saturday. This is located immediately inside the main entrance.
To celebrate the start of the weekend, we are offering you the chance to win a place on our unique writing workshop experience at the Project Pigeon Loft on Sunday.
This is an evocative and interesting space, and you will have the chance to work with novelist and comic writer Paul Macdonald, as well as meet the curators of Project Pigeon and learn a bit more about what they do. You might be wondering how birds and writing go together – but this isn’t about Pigeons per se. Have a look at the Spring Thing Newspaper Issue One for an interview with the project’s curators and some words from Paul. The article therein may also provide some inspiration for the question below!
We have two places to give away. These usually retail at £23 so take advantage of this unique give away and spend a few sunny hours wandering around the loft in Digbeth. There will be tea and coffee, too, and Festival Newspaper writer Anouk Abels will be on site to capture the experience in words.
TO WIN: Email us here and tell us which popular probiotic drink is apparently important to the diet of a Pigeon. We will contact the winners by Saturday morning.
If you are not a winner, don’t worry – you can still buy a ticket to this workshop (subject to availability) here.
Meanwhile, today, Friday, the Festival team will be out and about in the centre of Birmingham (around Birmingham Cathedral and Birmingham Central Library) asking you for your phrases to describe Birmingham – as inspiration for Talking Cities on Saturday night. Come and see us between 12-2 today, we will swap you a word for a chocolate!
We hope to see you this weekend at some of the Spring Thing’s events, or in the foyer enjoying the chance to read, relax and talk to friends. Say hello to our team – we love to meet people!
Have a great Spring Thing.
The Festival Team
The Spring Thing is nearly here
10 months ago
by Birmingham Book Festival
in alys fowler, april 2011, audio installation, birmingham, book, books, cake, candi miller, comedy, crime fiction, david lodge, editing, festival, fiction, gardening, helen calcutt, historical fiction, library, life writing, literature events, new voices, News, novel, panel discussion, performance, pigeons, poetry, publishing, readings and discussion, sophie hannah, spring, spring thing, sustainability, the writing squads, tindal street press, writing, writing west midlands
We are very excited here. It is less than two weeks until we enjoy two whole days of books, writers, chatting about books and writers, sharing ideas, networking, workshops, and of course a few quirky things too.
Coming up next week:
On Friday 8th April, the BBF team will be out and about in the city, at Birmingham Cathedral and Birmingham Library, asking you to get involved in a writing installation. So if you see us, stop by and say hello! We *might* be carrying chocolate…
Give & Take is a new feature of the Festival, too. It’s simple – you bring along to events any books you no longer want, and donate them to the G&T bin. You are then welcome to help yourself to a book from the bin.
Anticipation is building…
The event most people seem to be talking about is Project Pigeon’s writing workshop – in their actual pigeon loft in Digbeth. Far from being a cold and unwelcoming space, this is a friendly, informative, enlightening place where the project’s curators, Alex and Ian, are eager to talk to people about the pursuit of social change they are on, (and introduce us to the baby pigeons they’ve hatched this month). A place full of story and history, atmosphere and personality, inspiration will not be hard to come by.
We’re also getting excited about the fantastic John Hegley, who will be making us laugh and think on Sunday evening and closing the festival is style. That’s right after we celebrate the third birthday of indpendent press Nine Arches with readings from several of their poets . That’s a whole night of excellent poetry, cake and conversation.
Launching The Daily Spring Thing
To celebrate the Spring Thing, and the rich literary fabric here in Birmingham, we are launching The Birmingham Book Festival Newspaper. This is a free paper that will be published every day during both Festivals of the year. So, in preparation for the Spring Thing, issue one is ready. In it you will find plenty of information about events, advice on planning your weekend depending on your writing/reading interests, and yes, there is even a gossip column. Heaven knows what’ll go in that…
Spring Thing Newspaper Issue One
Issue Two will be published on the morning of the Saturday of the Spring Thing, and will be packed with information about the weekend ahead. It will include, among other things, an interview with crime writer Sophie Hannah, who is joining us on Saturday to eat cake and talk about the messy business of writing about murder and mystery.
Now to choose the cake…
Special Deal for The Spring Thing -10% off!
11 months ago
Book for more than four events, and book all your tickets at once, and you get 10% off!
This discount will be applied automatically when you book.
Call the Ticketsellers on 0844 870 0000 or book via the event pages on this website, or online at www.theticketsellers.co.uk
See you there!
