Posts tagged birmingham book festival
Tell Me On A Sunday
2 weeks ago
We know you have a story in you. Unleash it. Conjure a memory, recent or ancient, good or bad.
Tell it to yourself, re-tell it, hone it, cut it, embellish it. Pitch it to us. Get on stage and tell it.
Ikon, in collaboration with the Birmingham Book Festival presents a new series of free literary events. Hosted in Café Ikon, Tell Me On A Sunday is storytelling from life. Participants tell stories based around a specially selected theme, all with truth (and a good performance!) at their heart.
Each month, five storytellers will be chosen to perform a seven minute story live.
The events feature special guests and are curated by Cat Weatherill, one of Europe’s leading performance storytellers, who will also tell her own story. Originally championed by the Hay Festival, Cat has been creating and telling tales to adults and children for twelve years. She is also a best selling author, with books translated into nine languages.
The dates of these events are:
Sunday 19 February
Theme: Off the beaten track
Sunday 25 March
Theme: Hope and glory
Sunday 22 April
Theme: Feathers and bones
All events running from 4pm – 6.30pm and are FREE
Events begin at 4pm with Story Supper, a chance to meet fellow audience members and story tellers over a special Café Ikon menu (contact Ikon for prices). Performances commence at 5pm, finishing at 6.30pm.
Please note these events are intended for adult audiences. Places are free but should be reserved by calling Ikon on 0121 248 0708.
How to pitch your story:
Please visit the event page to see full details of how to pitch your own story and guidelines.
Speak to Strangers
4 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)
5 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
5 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
5 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
5 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
Your Favourite Poems
5 months ago
Tuesday 11th October
12pm – 2pm/ Free
Festival Bookshop, Library Foyer,
Central Library, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, B3 3HQ
Come and share your favourite poem in the Festival Bookshop! You will also be able to find out about our other events, buy books, mugs, bags and more or take the Bodies in The Library tour.
This event is part of the Fringe Festival.
Presented in Partnership with Birmingham Libraries.
Tickets: Free, just drop in.
Nine Arches Press & Flarestack Poets at Ikon Bookshop
5 months ago
Wednesday 12th October
3pm – 4pm/ Free
Bookshop, Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square,
Birmingham, B1 2HS
Meet the editors behind two of the region’s best known independent presses: Flarestack Poets and Nine Arches Press, while exploring Ikon’s bookshop.
This event is part of the Fringe Festival.
Presented in Partnership with Birmingham Libraries
Tickets: Free, just drop in
Moving Books
5 months ago
Friday 14th October
1pm – 6pm/ Free
Festival Bookshop, Library Foyer,
Central Library, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, B3 3HQ
Thousands of books will be moved into the New Library of Birmingham- which book would you most like to see there? Come and share your thoughts.
This event is part of the Fringe Festival.
Presented in Partnership with Birmingham Libraries
Tickets: Free, just drop in
Launching a new Festival and a new Poet Laureate!
5 months ago
Thursday 6th October
6pm – 8.30pm/ Free (Quiz £2)
Yumm Cafe, The Custard Factory,
Gibb Street, Birmingham, B9 4AA
Join the Festival and partners Birmingham Libraries and Poetry On Loan to launch the city’s literature festival.
Back for our 13th year, the Birmingham Book Festival is sharing an opening night with National Poetry Day 2011. What better excuse to invite one of our most exciting poets, Matt Harvey, to help us launch the Festival and test your literary knowledge with the return of the (now infamous) Festival Quiz – back by popular demand. We will also be announcing the city’s 16th Poet Laureate -live!
The Birmingham Poet Laureate scheme is founded and managed by Birmingham Libraries, it supports both an adult laureate and a young laureate for a year, connecting them with the writing community in Birmingham and helping them to generate opportunities for themselves and for others. The outgoing Laureate, Roy McFarlane, will perform alongside the winner, handing over the honorary title with a few words about his 2010-11 tenure.
There will be words from the Festival team, too, about what you can expect from the next ten days. We hope you can join us to welcome in this year’s season of writing, reading and thinking in Birmingham.
All of this takes place within the cosy den that is Yumm Café. Beer, wine, nibbles and soft drinks will be available.
Tickets: Free but please book to avoid
disappointment through our Box Office.
Book Online or call our Box Office (via the MAC)
on 0121 446 3232
If you wish to enter a quiz team or join one, please email joanne[at]birminghambookfestival.org. There is a £2 charge to enter. You can join on the night too.
The Fringe Festival
If you are around the city during the day on Thursday 6th October, look out for us as we head to various venues across the city centre with the Birmingham Poet Laureate finalists who will be performing some of their poetry from 2pm – 4pm.
The schedule of venues includes (timings are subject to alteration):
2pm: Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham, B1 2HS
2.30pm: Festival Bookshop, Library Foyer, Central Library, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, B3 3HQ
3pm: St Martin’s Church, Bullring
3.30pm: Cafe Blend, Orion Building, 90 Navigation Street, Birmingham, B5 4AA
The Fringe Festival is presented in Partnership with Birmingham Libraries.
For more information about Birmingham Libraries, please visit their website http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/libraries
