From storytelling to workshops, from Manga to slam poetry, and from LGBT events to a Literary Afternoon Tea, the 2015 Huddersfield Literature Festival (HLF2015) will be nothing if not varied. Running from 5-15 March in venues across the town, the festival this year has a theme of ‘Into the Future’.
HLF2015 will kick off with a free launch event on 5 March, featuring
MR Carey, author of the bestselling novel,
The Girl With All the Gifts.
Making his UK Festival debut,
Jamie DeWolf will be flying in from the States specially for HLF2015. The award-winning writer, poet, film-maker and outspoken critic of Scientology (Jamie is the great-grandson of L Ron Hubbard) will deliver a lecture,
The Author as God (12 March), teach a
Slam Poetry workshop (14 March) and host a
Slam Poetry evening (14 March).
As well as evenings with bestselling authors, including
Joanne Harris (6 March) and
Matt Haig (11 March), there will be an event to celebrate the life and work of
Dr Maya Angelou (10 March) and a Literary Afternoon Tea (8 March) featuring comedian and debut novelist
Helen Lederer with novelist and TV writer
David Nobbs.
The Huddersfield Manga Con returns (7 March) with a new name,
Majikkon, and
Polari Up North (7 March) will also return, hosted by
Paul Burston and featuring talented writers from the LGBT community.
A series of workshops will cover everything from writers’ block to writing short stories or short films.
The festival will be preceded by a series of events for National Libraries Day (7 February), organised with Kirklees Libraries, and also a free Family Day (28 February) on the theme of
‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ to celebrate the 150th anniversary of publication.
Booking is through the Lawrence Batley Theatre box office (
www.thelbt.org; 01484 430 528), and most events are either free or under £5 with concessions available. For more information, visit
www.litfest.org.uk or email:
huddlitfest@gmail.com.
Ways With Words runs three literature festivals a year covering a wide area of Britain: in the Lake District in March there is a festival of words and ideas, similarly at Dartington Hall in Devon in July, in November Ways With Words moves to the East for a festival in Southwold in Suffolk.
The next
Ways With Words event is the
Words by the Water festival at
Theatre by the Lake in
Keswick, 6–15 March 2015. The theatre is on the edge of Derwentwater and surrounded by mountains. The festival covers 10 full days with at least 2 venues running simultaneously. The Main Theatre has a general programme which this year includes
Melvyn Bragg, Kate Adie, Michael Buerk, Claire Tomalin, Margaret Drabble, James Naughtie.
The Studio features theme days, including Global Issues, Women’s Lives, The Ordinary, the Science of the Mind and the Science of the Body. Here the more unusual talks can be found–
Panikos Panayi on the history of fish and chips,
Frances Larson on decapitations,
Patrick Cockburn on ISIS and others.
Reading and Writing Holiday Course, Fingals, Devon 5-10 May
May 5–10 are the dates for
the Reading and Writing Holiday course at Fingals in Dittisham, Devon. Fingals is situated in an idyllic valley close to the river. It has an indoor heated swimming pool, a hot tub, jacuzzi, sauna, grass tennis court and croquet lawn and even garden ping pong. However for the less energetic there are many places in the rambling garden to place a deckchair for a quiet read.
It is a favourite place for people in the creative arts with its funky art and relaxed, stylish interior. Fingals' website (
www.fingals.co.uk) will tell you more about the place.
Course Theme: The Stuff of Life
Writing: Hugh Thomson will offer a series of whole group writing workshops. There are also 2 sessions over the course timetabled for individual seminars. At some times people follow private work that may have been suggested by the tutor or is self- directed. Inspiration and developments, beginnings and endings, the bit in between: all will be explored.
Hugh Thomson is a writer and film-maker as well as having eight books published. He has had a long career as a BAFTA nominated director of documentaries. His latest book 'The Green Road in the Trees' won the National Trust Wainwright Prize.
Hugh Thomson has spoken frequently at the Ways With Words festival at Dartington Hall and will be speaking there again in July 2015. He has been a tutor on Arvon courses and has been a Royal Literary Fund fellow at Oxford Brookes University.
Memoir Writing:
Ways With Words director,
Kay Dunbar, will lead a group session on Memoir Writing. Other writing sessions will cover the genres that particularly interest the group: memoir or travel writing, the joyful, the painful, the ordinary, the extraordinary, interests, people – etc.
Reading: There will be 2 sessions during the course when
Andrew Wilson, author of ‘Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted' - will talk to the group about Sylvia Plath and his biography of Patricia Highsmith. These talks will shape what we read in the bookgroups at Fingals and the films shown.
Other Activities: Two book groups will be led by the
Ways With Words directors,
Stephen Bristow and
Kay Dunbar. The titles of the books to be discussed are forwarded before the course starts.
Details of all
Ways With Words events can be found on the website (
www.wayswithwords.co.uk)
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