Centre for New Writing autumn 2016 events by Martin Harris Centre

LITERATURE LIVE: AUTUMN 2016

Centre for New Writing

These unique literature events, organised by the University’s Centre for New Writing, bring the best known contemporary writers to Manchester to discuss and read from their work. Everyone is welcome, and tickets include discounts at the Blackwell bookstall and a complimentary drink at our Literature Live wine receptions.

LITERATURE LIVE: Beverley Bie Brahic, Jeffrey Wainwright and Matthew Welton

Venue John Thaw Studio Theatre Time & Date 7.30pm, Monday 10 October 2016

Three gifted poets come together to read from eagerlyawaited new collections. Beverley Bie Brahic is a Canadian poet and translator who lives in Paris and San Francisco. Her book White Sheets was a finalist for the 2012 Forward Prize for Best Collection and her new book, Hunting the Boar, is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

Price £7 / £5 Beverley Bie Brahic

Jeffrey Wainwright grew up in Stoke-on-Trent and was Professor of English at MMU for many years. His new, seventh collection What Must Happen, is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and includes ‘An Empty Street’, which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem in 2014. Matthew Welton lectures in writing at The University of Nottingham. His debut, The Book of Matthew, won the Jerwood-Aldeburgh First Collection Prize; The Number Poems is his third collection.

Jeffrey Wainwright

The event will be hosted by John McAuliffe, Director of the Centre for New Writing and is presented in partnership with the Manchester Literature Festival. Book on 0843 208 0500 or manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk

Matthew Welton

What keeps a family together – and what can tear it apart? In literary wunderkind Jonathan Safran Foer’s long-awaited new novel, Here I Am, the Blochs face trying times. They’re supposed to be rejoicing on the eve of their eldest son’s Bar Mitzvah – but he’s just done something so bad the whole thing might be cancelled, and meanwhile everyone else in the family has troubles of their own. Jonathan is the author of three previous books: Everything is Illuminated (winner of the Guardian First Book Award and the National Jewish Book Award), Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Eating Animals. He will read from his new novel and discuss his writing and life with Jeanette Winterson, Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing and author of award-winning books including Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, The Gap of Time and Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?.

GUARDIAN LIVE: Jeanette Winterson “In Conversation” with Jonathan Safran Foer

Time & Date 6.30pm, Tuesday 11 October 2016 Price £10 / £8

Jeanette Winterson

Jonathan Safran Foer

Presented in partnership with the Manchester Literature Festival and Guardian Live. Book on 0843 208 0500 or manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk

Venue Central Library

Castlefield Manchester Sermon: Kamila Shamsie We are delighted that Kamila Shamsie will be giving the 7th Castlefield Manchester Sermon, reflecting on ethical issues of the day. One of our finest contemporary writers, Kamila grew up in Karachi and now lives in London. She has written six compelling and beautifully crafted novels including Burnt Shadows, Broken Verses, Salt and Saffron, and A God in Every Stone, which was shortlisted for both the Walter Scott Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Venue Manchester Cathedral Time & Date 7pm, Friday 14 October 2016 Price £10 / £8 Kamila Shamsie

Her work has been translated into over twenty languages and she is a Granta Best of Young British Novelist. Championed as ‘a writer of immense ambition and strength’ by Salman Rushdie, she frequently explores history, conflict, empire, freedom, love, friendship and the call of adventure in her work. In 2015 she delivered a National Conversation provocation that suggested publishers should make 2018 the Year of Publishing Women. Her Sermon will be followed by a conversation with Jeanette Winterson, author and Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing. The Manchester Sermon is one of Manchester Literature Festival’s annual commissions. Previous Sermons have been given by Ali Smith, Jeanette Winterson, Andrew Motion and Elif Shafak. The event is presented in partnership with Manchester Cathedral and is sponsored by Castlefield, ethical financial advisers based in Manchester.

Anne Enright Anne Enright is one of the leading novelists at work today. Born in Dublin, her novels include What are You Like?, The Forgotten Waltz and The Gathering (winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year Award and the Irish Fiction Award).

Book on 0843 208 0500 or manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk

Presented in partnership with the Manchester Literature Festival. Book on 0843 208 0500 or manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk

Time & Date 7pm, Monday 17 October 2016 Price £10 / £8

Her latest novel, The Green Road, was published in May 2015 to a sea of praise. Her short fiction was collected in Yesterday’s Weather, and she was the editor of The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story. In 2015 she was appointed as the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. The New York Times said, ‘Enright possesses an unusual combination of talents. She is a rich, lyrical prose writer, who cascades among novelties – again and again, she finds the unexpected adjective, the just noun.’ She will be reading from her work and discussing it with John McAuliffe, poet and Director of the Centre for New Writing.

Venue Hallé St Peter’s

Anne Enright

Eimear McBride The Lesser Bohemians Join us for an evening with brilliant young Irish novelist Eimear McBride. Described by The Times Literary Supplement as ‘a writer of remarkable power and originality,’ Eimear’s astonishing debut A Girl is a Half-formed Thing received the inaugural Goldsmiths Prize, the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year. Her short stories have appeared in Dubliners 100, The Long Gaze Back and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Venue Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall Time & Date 7.30pm, Thursday 20 October 2016 Price £8 / £6

Eimear McBride

Her new novel, The Lesser Bohemians, follows a young Irish woman who arrives in London to study drama and falls passionately, dangerously in love with an older actor. A bold and subversive story about sexual passion, The Lesser Bohemians is also a celebration of love, and how it can both destroy and create. Come and find out why Anne Enright said, ‘Eimear McBride is that old-fashioned thing, a genius.’ Eimear will be in conversation with John McAuliffe, poet and Director of the Centre for New Writing. Presented in partnership with the Manchester Literature Festival. Book on 0843 208 0500 or manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk

Michael Longley (b. 1939, Belfast) is one of the greatest living English-language poets. His work has received the Whitbread Prize for Poetry, the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Wilfred Owen Award amongst others. His Collected Poems appeared in 2006 and since then he has published A Hundred Doors (2011) and The Stairwell (2014), whose “ lyrical annotations of wild places and quick articulate raids on the classics” (The Irish Times) won The Griffin International Prize for Best Collection in 2015.

LITERATURE LIVE: Michael Longley

Venue John Thaw Studio Theatre Time & Date 7.30pm, Monday 7 November 2016 Price £7 / £5

Michael Longley

“A keeper of the artistic estate, a custodian of griefs and wonders” – Seamus Heaney

To Book: Tickets can be purchased by visiting www.quaytickets.com or by calling The Martin Harris Centre box office on 0161 275 8951 or e-mailing boxoffice@manchester.ac.uk Join our mailing list by emailing info-cnw@manchester.ac.uk Centre for New Writing The University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/cnw

www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/cnw

14th Annual Rylands Poetry Reading: Bill Manhire

Time & Date 6pm, Thursday 24 November 2016

Join us for an evening of poetry at The John Rylands Library. This year’s Rylands Poetry Reading will be given by Bill Manhire. Bill Manhire (b. Invercargill, NZ, 1946) was his country’s inaugural Poet Laureate and has won the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry four times. His Collected Poems was published by Carcanet in 2001, and he has subsequently published two acclaimed collections, Lifted (2005) and The Victims of Lightning (2010).

Venue The John Rylands Library, Deansgate

Bill Manhire

Price FREE (booking essential)

A celebrated and influential teacher, he held a personal chair at the Victoria University of Wellington, where he directed the creative writing programme at the International Institute of Modern Letters. “A poet of considerable subtlety and strength, a ‘dangerous writer’...” – Charles Causley, Landfall This is a FREE event – but booking is essential as places are limited. To reserve your place please contact: The John Rylands Library on tel: 0161 306 0555 or email jrl.visitors@manchester.ac.uk

The Caroline Chisholm Reading

Venue International Anthony Burgess Foundation

This event honours the memory of writer Caroline Chisholm (MA Creative Writing, 2013), who was a valued member of the Centre for New Writing community. It will feature a reading from the best dissertation submitted by an MA student at the Centre in 2016, alongside a reading by a writer whose fiction is close in spirit to Caroline’s own novels in progress and her work at Greenpeace. Hisham Matar is a Libyan writer whose debut novel In the Country of Men was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize. Matar’s essays have appeared in the Asharq Alawsat, The Independent, The Guardian, The Times and The New York Times. His second novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, was published in 2011 and his memoir The Return (2016), described by the Financial Times as “a subtle and nimble work of art”, has been widely acclaimed.

Time & Date 6.30pm, Wednesday 14 December 2016 Caroline Chisholm (1972-2015)

Price £6 / £4

Hisham Matar

The Manchester Review is the Centre for New Writing’s online journal, showcasing new work by both world-leading and emerging writers and artists. The Review’s agenda-setting reviews section is regularly updated with views on the latest books, films, exhibitions, theatre and music. www.themanchesterreview.co.uk

www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/cnw

Centre for New Writing School of Arts, Languages and Cultures The University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL Telephone: 0161 275 8951 Email: boxoffice@manchester.ac.uk Online tickets: www.quaytickets.com centrefornewwriting @newwritingMCR www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/cnw DW3069.08.16 The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL Royal Charter Number RC000797