Events
Events Managed by Writing West Midlands
Writing West Midlands manages a programme of Festivals (currently the Birmingham Book Festival – October and Birmingham Book Festival – The Spring Thing) along with occassional creative writing Workshops and live literature and writing performances. Our writer development and learning programmes also generates events. Most events are targetted at adults although many events in our learning programme and some other events are for young people and children.
Events Managed by Others
Please also visit Writing Organistions, Writing Festivals and Writing Groups for details of events managed by others in the West Midlands.
Go to links for a listing of some other writing organisations, festivals and groups outside of the West Midlands.
Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, West Midlands, Open Event: ‘Writing For Publication’
Centenary Suite, Birmingham Rep Theatre, Friday 22nd January 2010, Time: 7.30pm. Free to Writers’ Guild Members – £5 for non-members, payable on the door. (Please email WMidWritersGuild[@]aol.com to confirm your attendance.)
A discussion on publishing with Laura Longrigg – Director, MBA Literary Agents, Alan Mahar – Publishing Director of Tindal Street Press, Jane Commane – Co-Director of Nine Arches Press, Jacqui Rowe – Co-Director of Flarestack Poets and chaired by Helen Cross.
An Evening with Gervase Phinn at Warwick Words
Saturday 23 January 2010, Guy Nelson Hall, Warwick School, 7.00pm, Tickets £10 ( £8 concs, U16’s £5). BOX OFFICE: 01926 776438, www.warwickwords.co.uk
Join best selling author of poetry, novels and short story collections Gervase Phinn. He has a wonderful gift for storytelling – both funny, and entertaining which appeals to both adults and children. For families with children age 10 plus.
Jacqui Rowe presents Poetry Bites at the Kitchen Garden Café with Michael McKimm
7.30pm, Tuesday 26th January, 2010 (Food available from 6.30pm). Kitchen Garden Café , 17 York Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 7SA. £5 (£4) To reserve a place email jacquirowe@hotmail.co.uk or pay at the door. www.jacquirowe.com.
Michael McKimm was born in Belfast in 1983 and grew up near the Giant’s Causeway. He graduated from the Warwick Writing Programme in 2004 and won an Eric Gregory Award in 2007. His poetry is most recently published in Dossier Journal (New York), Horizon Review, Magma, Oxford Poetry, PN Review, The Warwick Review, The Wolf and The Best of Irish Poetry 2010 (edited by Matthew Sweeney). He has read his work throughout the UK and Ireland, including at the Ledbury Poetry Festival, the Stanza Festival and the Solstice Festival in Co. Kerry. In November 2009 he was commissioned to write poems for the David Hockney/Frances Stark exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary art gallery. Still This Need, his first full-length collection, was published by Heaventree in 2009. www.michaelmckimm.co.uk. Poetry Bites includes floor spots where you can share your own poetry with an appreciative audience. Please arrive early to book a spot.
Rhymes Performance Poetry and Spoken Word
Rhymes, Thursday 28th January 2010, 8pm, £5. The Mixing Bowl Theatre, The Custard Factory, Digbeth, Birmingham.
Birmingham’s premier platform for Performance Poetry and Spoken Word. Every month ‘Rhymes’ hosts at least three professional performance poets and upcoming talent, both local and national. There is also a chance for you the audience to write and perform a poem in the form of The Wordbag Challenge.
A Girls’ Night In
A special ‘girls night in ‘ event with Carole Matthews, Annie Murray & Judy Astley (chaired by Charlie Jordan) at Birmingham Library Theatre on Tuesday 9th February 2010 at 6.30pm (for a 7.00pm start) Tickets (free) via the Box Office on 0121 303 2323 or online via
A Book Dating Event with the Birmingham BookCrossers
The Birmingham BookCrossers invite you to come Book Dating – a charity event in aid of LUCIA Sunday 14 February 2010 2.00-4.00 pm Urban Coffee Company, Church Street, Birmingham (just off Colmore Row) No actual dating involved – but you might find a book to share your life with! Meet acclaimed and popular author Roger Ellory, with a chance to buy copies of his books, and get some great recommendations for new reads from the Birmingham BookCrossers. There’s also a raffle with some great prizes, and a book quiz to take away and study.
TV Writers Day
Saturday 20th February, De Montfort University, Leicester. Comedian, actress, and writer for TV and Radio, Miranda Hart, will be joining Paul Mayhew Archer (co-writer Vicar of Dibley, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps), Laurence Marks (Birds of a Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart) and radio writer Mark Evans (Bleak Expectations, That Mitchell & Webb Sound) as guest speakers at the annual TV Writers Day at De Montfort University, Leicester. The day long event consists of keynote speeches, question and answer panels and fantastic networking opportunities hosted by the University’s MA Television Scriptwriting team. Tickets for the day cost £65 and include parking, coffee on arrival, lunch and an evening drinks reception with nibbles. The event will begin at 10am and is expected to finish at approximately 5.30pm with the evening reception starting straight after. For more information on how to book your place please visit the website at www.dmu.ac.uk/tvwritersday.