Celebrating new writing, new technology and new venues, the inaugural Manchester Literature Festival reflects the original modern city through an inventive and stimulating programme. Readings by some of the world’s finest authors in the best venues the city has to offer, freshly commissioned work and Freeplay, a series of events
and happenings where literature goes high tech!

The Burgess Project is a unique and pioneering production by the-phone-book Limited that brings new life to a
diverse literary archive. Using local writing talent and new technologies, this will be a live-literature promenade tour of the city. With expert advice from Burgess biographer, Andrew Biswell, some of the North West's most dynamic writers have been inspired by Burgess’s Manchester to create a new collection of work. Whether a vignette instigated
by a musical score, a short story prompted by a Greek translation, or a haiku description of a Manchester transformed by industrial redevelopment, this is a modern approach to an epic collection. The production will culminate in a live
literature performance in the city centre, with rich media footage of Burgess' real life (photos, clips from his broadcasts, ringtones from his compositions) sent to the audience’s phones.

Read: What happens when everything you thought you knew about your mother turns out to be an elaborate lie?
William Boyd’s gripping new novel, Restless, explores the devastating consequences of duplicity and betrayal
against the backdrop of the Second World War, while presenting a remarkable portrait of a female spy. The Whitbread-winning author reads from his new work at a stellar evening event
Independent: The Festival plays host to readings and events showcasing the best in independent publishing,
writing and production. Decapolis: Ten Cities – Ten Stories – Ten Languages is the latest anthology from independent publisher, Comma Press. This is a unique project bringing together (and translating) stories from
Europe - stories not just set in each city, but embedded in each city’s personality. Every story, by a writer born or permanently based in each city, acts as a snapshot and the whole book offers a kind of travel guide to each city, through its fiction.
Set in 'hidden gem' locations around the city, Manchester Literature Festival has commissioned with the BBC, five eminent Manchester writers to tell Manchester: Original Modern Stories; fifteen minute tales about places one might walk past every day without ever seeing. Chethams’ Library, Manchester Police Museum, the Godlee
Observatory, Sangam Restaurant in Rusholme and The Gaskell House are all places where important events have
taken place, major decisions been made, or personal dramas played out against the backdrop of the original modern city. Writers commissioned include Amanda Dalton, Jackie Kay, Sophie Hannah, Nicholas Royle and
Rajeev Balasubramanyam.
Manchester Festival of Palestinian Literature is this country’s first ever dedicated festival of Palestinian
literature and includes shared platform readings and panel debates given by some of Palestine’s most exciting novelists, poets and short story writers in tandem with high profile authors from the UK, Europe, the US and the wider Middle East; all in a venue transformed into a colourful Palestinian market selling food and a diverse range of
other goods relating to Palestinian culture. Writers featured are Ahdaf Soueif, Mourid Barhgouti, Carol
Ann Duffy, Salma Khadra Jayyusi, and Nicholas Blincoe.
Chloe Poems instructs on How to be a Better Gay at Studio Salford with a launch and live DVD recording of
the show on Saturday 21 October while those craving a smart and subversive celebration of female anti-heroes can
be bad and enjoy it at Crocus Press’ launch of Bitch Lit on Thursday 19 October.
Anywhere Blogs is a world first for Manchester: connecting three schools in the city with a school in Northern
India, Blink Media and the Festival are bringing together young people through mobile phone websites to tell each other stories, share experiences and celebrate the things that both bring us together and make us different. Across the period of the festival, the people of Manchester will get the chance to share this technology wherever they spot an Anywhereblogs poster – simply text to the number shown to share experiences online by mobile phone with residents and visitors all over the city. It’s a world first and it will change how one experiences the city forever…
Manchester Literature Festival, in association with the South Bank Centre and Arts Council England, will host the UK premiere of Wisteria: Twilight Songs from the Swamp Country by poet Kwame Dawes, the most significant
Caribbean poet of the post-Walcott generation. A collaboration between Dawes and the composer Kevin Simmonds,
the songs are derived from Dawes' poems based on his conversations with residents of Sumter, South Carolina about living through segregation, and how those experiences have informed their lives since the civil rights movement.
Performed by an all black ensemble of four singers and six musicians, plus Kwame himself, the result is an
extraordinary piece of work, haunting in its retelling of these stories, and beguiling in its musical nterpretation.
Urbis hosts the first Manchester Blogs Awards with a live awards ceremony on Monday 16 October. The launch of new collection of short stories Mortality by Nicholas Royle is on Tuesday 17 October while Sharon Olds reads from her new collection of poetry at the Manchester Museum on Thursday 19 October. Manchester school students can book to see Brian Patten and Michael Rosen at the Library Theatre.
Join some Manchester based TV commissioners, producers and writers to discuss how to make the journey from
writer to screen writer. Chaired by Katherine Beacon (BBC Writersroom), Ric Michael (Baby Cow Manchester), Nicola Shindler (Red Productions), Danny Brocklehurst and Jim Poyser will guide budding screenwriters.
And finally, Mike Garry leads everyone on a Mancunian Meander using verse to celebrate and explore the
suburbs of Wythenshawe on 12th, Chorlton-cum-Hardy on 19th and Manchester‘s city centre on 21 October.