Archive for October, 2011
It’s all over
4 months ago
by Birmingham Book Festival
in News
It is the end of another lovely festival, and we are fast collating all the images, reviews and articles we want to share with you, via this site, Facebook, Twitter and our Blog.
Thank you to everyone who attended an event or supported us in any way. We enjoy each and every event and love meeting our audience.
Please continue to visit this site to keep up to date with our forthcoming events and activities.
Thanks for a great festival!
So far so good…
4 months ago
by Birmingham Book Festival
in News
Here’s a look at what we’ve been getting up to at the Festival so far. There are more pictures over at our Facebook page, too.
Last Thursday, National Poetry Day, we launched the Festival…..
and helped Birmingham Libraries announce the new Birmingh
am Poet Laureate, Jan Watts. 
Yumm Cafe in Digbeth hosted our lovely launch party and quiz, chaired by charming, funny poet Matt Harvey, who also entertained us with a few poems and got to know the 2010-11 Poet Laureate, Roy McFarlane, who also shared some words with the waiting crowd!
Roy, assuring us there are ‘bikes, bikes everywhere…’ in Amsterdam.
On Friday, we joined Tindal Street Press for the launch of their new anthology, Too Asian, Not Asian Enough, at Ikon Gallery.
Thanks to Ikon for the gorgeous backdrop!
After Tindal Street, we met writer Ian Leslie, who, in conversation with head of the new Library of Birmingham project Brian Gambles, shared with us the thinking behind his books, Born Liars. We all are, in turns out, but don’t worry, it’s okay… with special thanks to the RSA for co-presenting this event.
Saturday was our book fair for independent presses, States of Independence (West), at Eastside Projects in Digbeth.
After a very early start the presses got down to some serious bookselling, and a programme of brief readings and seminars went on throughout the day.
There was soup and cake, too…
On Monday,we were delighted to join The Writers’ Guild in presenting ‘Developing Writers with the BBC’ featuring the BBC Writersroom’s Paul Ashton.
Amongst these events a Fringe festival has been happening in and around the Festival Bookshop, featuring everything from drop in sessions with the Book Doctors to events with authors, including Edmund Bealby-Wright and Linda Green. Today favourite poems were shared with new Birmingham Poet Laureate Jan Watts.
So much more to come!! Keep checking our facebook page, our Blog, which contains some great reviews of the events we’ve enjoyed so far, and of course book your tickets for everything still to come!
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.
Birmingham Post Interviews Will Self
4 months ago
by Birmingham Book Festival
in News
Here is the Birmingham Post’s Interview with Will Self, ahead of his event on Thursday 13th October.
Image: Polly Boland
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.
Speak to Strangers
5 months ago
Saturday 15th October
4pm/ Free
Festival Bookshop, Library Foyer, Central Library, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, B3 3HQ
Originally a daily fiction blog, Speak to Strangers was 100 hundred-word stories, one for each day, based on random encounters with Londoners. The series is now available in print, published by Penned in the Margins.
Speak to Strangers will visit Birmingham in October, aiming to document and capture the essence of the city through a series of original hundred-word stories.
You can follow Gemma online – day by day – as she meets and records her interactions with authors, poets and festival-goers in a new sequence hundred-word stories. And you’re invited to write about your own experiences of speaking to strangers at the festival, all at www.gemmaseltzer.co.uk.
Hear Gemma read her stories and share her experience of speaking to strangers in our Festival Bookshop from 4pm on Saturday 15th October.
To find out more, you can follow Speak to Strangers on Twitter @gemseltz and #speaktostrangers
Tickets: Free, no need to book
States of Independence (West)
6 months ago
Saturday 8th October
10am – 4pm/ Free, just drop in
Eastside Projects (Gallery),
86 Heath Mill Lane, Digbeth,
Birmingham, B9 4AR
States of Independence (West) is a book fair celebrating regional (and some national) independent publishers of poetry, fiction, art and several points in between. Come and browse the latest in independent publications, meet publishers, writers and other readers. There will be a programme of events and readings throughout the day, including panel discussions and flash workshops, as well as a quiet area to relax with a coffee and your just-bought book. Set within the striking surrounds of Eastside Projects Digbeth gallery, this is a chance to explore the vibrant independent publishing movement in the West ands and beyond.
States of Independence (West) has been produced by the West Midlands Independent Publishers Network, and has been managed by Writing West Midlands and Nine Arches Press. The Network includes Nine Arches Press, Flarestack Poets, Cinnamon Press, Offa’s Press, Five Seasons Press, Rubery Press and Tindal Street Press. States of Independence was first created in the East Midlands by Five Leaves Press, who have supported the Network in bringing this event to the West Midlands.
Publishers who will be present at States of Independence include:
Shoestring Press
Leafe Press
Cinnamon Press
Penned in the Margins
Five Leaves Publications
Flarestack Poets
Sidekick Books
Tindal Street Press
Offa’s Press
Supported by Eastside Projects www.eastsideprojects.org
Price: Free, just come in and browse!
The Writers’ Walk
6 months ago
Sunday 16th October
12pm – 1pm/ Free
Meet at the MAC Cafe, Cannon Hill Park,
Edgbaston, Birmingham, B12 9QH
Start your Sunday off with a stroll around the park. It’s simple- meet us at MAC, and wander with us, talking about writing, reading, anything you like.
Bring your children, friends, dogs- all welcome. Afterwards we will retire to the café for a warming cup of tea or coffee before going on to a great afternoon of events to close the Festival.
Tickets: Free- no need to book.
Meet us at the MAC Cafe at 12pm
.
Closing Party with Ellen Deckwitz & Daan Doesborgh
6 months ago
Sunday 16th October
5.30pm- 6.30pm/ Free (Open Mic slots £5 each)
Open Space, MAC, Cannon Hill Park, Edgbaston, Birmingham
Finish the Festival properly with a feast of spoken word – open mic slots for the city’s up and coming poets, hosted and followed by Dutch poetry slam legends Daan Doesborgh and Ellen Deckwitz. Both national champions in Slam Poetry in their home country, they come to Birmingham with a show put together just for us. Combining their powers, they present L&D: a Dutch supergroup of poetry slam.
Also known as the Siegfried and Roy of poetry performance, Ellen and Daan will bring you a show filled with poetry, humour, mime and Dutch folklore. Find out why people already refer to them as the bosses of spoken word! Allow them to bring you to laughter and to tears, and then join us in the bar to celebrate another great year of literature.
Tickets: Free, no need to book.
If you would like to share your poetry with an audience, we have six 3 minute slots available for our open mic which is included in this event.
Email joanne[at]birminghambookfestival.org to apply by the 1st October 2011.
Book Doctors
6 months ago
Friday 7th October &
Thursday 13th October
1pm – 6pm/ Free
Festival Bookshop,Library Foyer,
Central Library, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, B3 3HQ
Are you stuck in a reading rut? Do you have literary lethargy? Come and see the Book Doctors and discover some exciting new reads!
This event is part of the Festival Fringe.
Presented in Partnership with Birmingham Libraries.
Tickets: Free, just drop in
