Manchester Literature Festival (MLF) began trading in 2006 and was built on the legacy of its successful predecessor, Manchester Poetry Festival. MLF provides unique and imaginative opportunities for audiences to experience high quality live literature via an annual festival format and associated project activities.

Highlights:

• Oyinkan Braithwaite & Candice Carty-Williams – Sunday 6 October, 4 PM @ International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 3 Cambridge Street, Manchester M1 5BY

In their superb debut novels, Oyinkan Braithwaite and Candice Carty-Williams fight patriarchy with dark humour – and occasionally a knife. ‘In My Sister, the Serial Killer’, Oyinkan asks if blood is thicker than water as Korede helps her sister clean up after she murders yet another boyfriend in ‘self-defence’. Meanwhile, in the smart and darkly comic Queenie’, Candice’s heroine deals with a range of abusive men after a foray into dating. Hosted by Anita Sethi.
Tickets £8/£6

• Cabaret For Freedom: A Celebration of the Windrush Generation – Saturday 12 October, 7.30 PM @ St John’s Church, Old Trafford, Manchester M16 7GX

Khadijah Ibrahiim (Another Crossing) performs poetry inspired by her Jamaican heritage, and poet-musician Roger Robinson reads from his collection ‘A Portable Paradise’, exploring the changing faces of London and Trinidad. There will also be new work from Manchester collective Young Identity. Hosted by Jackie Kay and Shirley May. Presented in partnership with St John’s Church and Speaking Volumes.
Tickets £10/£5

• Patricia Smith & Keisha Thompson – Thursday 17 October, 7 PM @ International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 3 Cambridge Street, Manchester M1 5BY

Visionary American poet Patricia Smith’s recent collection, Incendiary Art, focuses on the 1955 murder of Emmett Till – a backdrop for the passionate and lyrically inventive chronicling of present-day violence against African American men and its devastating impact. Patricia will be supported by Manchester-based writer and performance artist Keisha Thompson, whose collection Lunar explores the Black British experience, masculinity and mental health.
Tickets £8/£6

• It’s Not About the Burqa – Sunday 20 October, 4.30 PM @ Central Library, St Peter’s Square, Manchester M2 5PD

Frustrated by constantly being told what Muslim women are like, editor Mariam Khan invited Muslim women to voice their own narratives for the ground-breaking anthology ‘It’s Not About the Burqa’. Salma El-Wardany talks about the silence around sex, Yassmin Midhat Abdel-Magied takes her place as a woman in engineering, Afshan D’souza-Lodhi claims her identity as a queer Muslim woman, and Mariam decentres white feminism.
Tickets £8/£6

• Resist: Stories of Uprising: Steve Chambers, Irfan Master & Karline Smith – Saturday 19 October, 4 PM @ International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 3 Cambridge Street, Manchester M1 5BY

Resist is a series of commissions reimagining key moments of British protest though fiction. Contributors Steve Chambers (GLADIO: We can Neither Confirm nor Deny), Irfan Master (Out of Heart) and Karline Smith (Moss Side Massive) will read stories inspired by the 1936 Battle of Cable Street, the 1979 killing of Blair Peach, and the 2011 Tottenham Riots. They will discuss the effectiveness of uprisings with Comma Press’s Ra Page.
Tickets FREE – booking advised.

• Inua Ellams: Tusk – Friday 15 November, 7 PM @ Manchester Museum, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL

Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is an internationally acclaimed poet, playwright and performer. His books include #Afterhours and The Half God of Rainfall. His last play, Barber Shop Chronicles, sold out at the National Theatre and received rave reviews at the Royal Exchange. For this special MLF and Manchester Museum co-commission, Inua performs new verses responding to an artefact taken from Benin, now in the Museum’s collection.
Tickets FREE – Booking advised.

How to Book:

Online at MLF
Quay Tickets

There is a one-off charge of £2 for postage, or 75p for e-tickets per transaction.

Call Quay Tickets on 0843 208 0500 / Access Line: 0333 320 2838
Box office is open Monday – Sunday, 9.30 AM – 8 PM.