Events at the Centre for New Writing
The Centre for New Writing organises the 'Literature Live' reading series, bringing the best known contemporary writers from all over the world to Manchester to discuss and read from their work.
In the past, we've hosted an impressive line-up of literary luminaries including Martin Amis, Colm Tóibín, Sarah Waters, John Banville, Hilary Mantel, Neil Gaiman, Paul Muldoon, Rose Tremain and Hanif Kureishi.
We are looking forward to welcoming our audiences back to our in-house literature live events. For now, we hope you enjoy watching our online literature events. Keep checking our social media pages or sign up to our newsletter for further news and updates.
Upcoming events
Manchester Literature Festival: David Peace at HOME
Limbs and hearts may be broken, but the spirit remains. Their message is that the club is not dead. Manchester United lives on. In February 1958, BEA Flight 609 crashed on take-off at Munich Airport. On board were the Busby Babes, the young, gifted Manchester United team, along with journalists and supporters. 23 passengers died, 21 survived...
Manchester Literature Festival: Lindsey Hilsum
‘I was standing outside an apartment block that had been split apart by a missile. The words of a poem came to me when I could no longer find my own.’ In the four decades she’s spent as a foreign correspondent, Lindsey Hilsum has always carried a book of poetry with her. Poetry has helped her to make sense of the world and acted ‘as a..
MLF 2024: Humanise with Thomas Heatherwick
‘Humanise is a masterwork.’ Alain de Botton One of the world’s most prolific designers, Thomas Heatherwick is fighting ‘an epidemic of boringness’ and demands that we put human emotion back at the heart of building design. With Humanise: A Maker’s Guide to Building Our World, Thomas draws on neuroscience and cognitive psychology t..
MLF 2024: An Evening with Meera Sodha
‘The ability to put a good dinner on the table has become my superpower and I want it to become yours too.’ Bestselling, multi-award-winning cook Meera Sodha joins us to share her passion for East and South Asian cuisine and her most personal recipes to date. Dinner contains the food she makes for pleasure. The dishes she creates when she..
Manchester Literature Festival 2024 poetry reading with Gillian Clarke
‘Clarke has a direct line to the natural world. She paints the Welsh landscape without idealising or romanticising, and in the process shows that nature doesn’t need to be elevated to inspire a quiet awe.’ – Financial Times Join us for the annual Rylands Poetry Reading, this year delivered by the former National Poet of Wales, Gillian..
MLF 2024: Gillian Clarke poetry masterclass
Poet, playwright and educator Gillian Clarke is one of the most acclaimed and widely read poets of recent decades. In this workshop, she will share insights into the craft of poetry, and how to bend language into original and musical verse. Gillian is the former National Poet of Wales and president of the Ty Newydd writers’ centre which she..
MLF 2024: Joe Boyd
“New technologies may divert our attention, but music created in the moment can still be found where it always has been, in the feet, fingers, voices and spirits of musicians in every corner of the world.” Legendary music producer Joe Boyd (White Bicycle: Making Music in the 1960s) invites you to open your ‘minds and ears to a wider, r..
MLF 2024: Andrew O'Hagan with Dave Haslam
‘Andrew O’Hagan has made more than a great book – he has made a social miracle.’ Joshua Cohen Scottish author Andrew O’Hagan joins us to discuss his gripping new state-of-the-nation novel Caledonian Road with host Dave Haslam. Art historian and celebrated critic Campbell Flynn is beguiled by his provocative student Milo Mangasha who..
MLF 2024: An Audience with Rebecca F. Kuang
Bestselling global sensation, Rebecca F. Kuang is the author of the ‘Hard to put down, harder to forget’ (Stephen King) satirical phenomenon Yellowface, inventive fantastical novel Babel and TikTok favourite The Poppy War trilogy. Both Yellowface and Babel were awarded Fiction Book of the Year at the British Book Awards and received critic..
Modern Manchester Unveiled: Exploring the Cultural Tapestry
Join us for a very special panel discussion, event as we explore the cultural tapestry that make up modern Manchester with local authors who have written extensively about the city. The panellists will discuss how modern Manchester has developed over the last three decades, what the cultural and literary landscape looks like now, how it’s i..