Unsung magazine looking for submissions

Unsung is a FREE monthly magazine that helps promote all the unsung, underrated, underground, unheard voices of Manchester. They publish prose, poetry, essays, pretty much anything that is good writing and distribute the magazine throughout Manchester...

They are currently looking for content for issue 5 so, if you are interested in getting your work published please email your submission to unsung.manchester@gmail.com.

Writers @ Central Library: Elizabeth Baines and Robert Graham

Elizabeth Baines is a prize winning playwright for radio and stage, an acclaimed blogger (fictionbitch)and author of short story collection Balancing on the Edge of the World (Salt) - 'A stunning debut collection' Melissa Lee-Houghton, The Short Review
Elizabeth will be reading from her new novel, Too Many Magpies.

Robert Graham teaches Creative Writing at MMU and is the author of several books on creative writing and writing fiction. He has written and directed more than a dozen youth theatre productions and his first novel, Holy Joe, was published by Troubador in 2006.

Wednesday 2 December
Committee Room, 2nd floor 6pm

FREE
Everyone welcome - for more information please contact Libby Tempest on 0161 234 1981
email: l.tempest@manchester.gov.uk

Poets @ Central Library: Simon Rennie & Friends

Simon Rennie is well known in Manchester as the debonair (!) founder and host of MMU’s successful poetry night Inn Verse.

He is currently working towards his MA in Studies in Poetry at the University of Durham. Little Machines is Simon’s first collection (Knives, Forks and Spoons Press).

“…full of assurance, skill and wit...at their best, these are poems of beauty and tenderness, carried by a distinctive new voice”
Michael Symmons Roberts, Professor of Poetry at MMU

Also appearing are John G Hall, Editor of Citizen 32, reading from his new collection Bang! (Militant Minds)and Alec Newman, Editor of Knives, Forks and Spoons Press, reading from his new collection Earthworks.

For more information please contact Libby Tempest on 0161 234 1981
email: l.tempest@manchester .gov.uk

Thursday 26 November
Committee Room, Second Floor 6pm

Bookish gifts: No 2 Literary Handbags

Mad about a certain book? Have it immortalised on a bag. Olympia Le-Tan makes handbags that look like books, with covers embroidered to resemble classics. Her new limited edition collection features 21 classic novel covers embroidered onto canvas stretched over a brass frame. Each bag costs (sit down!) $1,600 and Tilda Swinton and Chloe Sevigny are said to have ordered bags - the Moby Dick bag was a commission for Sevigny. If you are visiting Paris, the bags are on sale at Colette, the Paris concept store. More pictures here.

Ruth Estevez and Elizabeth Baines launch Chorlton Book Festival today! #chorltonbf

A scriptwriter on BBC’s Bob the Builder, Ruth Estevez’s first novel, Meeting Coty, explores choices between relationships and a career with the most successful perfume maker of the 1920s. Ruth will be at Chorlton Library today talking about blending fact and fiction, relationships and a career and reading from her novel, "Meeting Coty".

If you want to know more about Francois Coty, one of the great perfume makers of his generation, join the debate about how people manage all the different elements in their lives, or just sit back and listen, please join us at Chorlton Library today (Monday 9 November) at 2pm...

...and at 7pm it's your chance to meet Elizabeth Baines in Chorlton's Lounge Bar. Elizabeth writes prizewinning fiction and plays for radio and stage and her most recent books are the acclaimed short story collection, Balancing on the Edge of the World and her new novel, Too Many Magpies (Salt), published in October.

Born in Bridgend, South Wales, to a Welsh mother and an Irish father, she studied English at Bangor, and for several years was a teacher of English in schools in Scotland and England. She is the prizewinning author of prose fiction and plays, with an established career as an acclaimed radio dramatist. Her collection of short stories, Balancing on the Edge of the World, was pronounced 'a stunning debut collection' (The Short Review). In 2004 she took up occasional acting by performing one of her own stage monologues for the 24:7 Theatre Festival. She lives in Manchester and writes the well-regarded Fictionbitch blog and her own author blog.

Chorlton Book Festival starts today bringing prizewinning authors, scriptwriters and poets to the local library as well as pubs, bars and churches. With Treasure Island and Bob the Builder alongside the Spanish Civil War and Social Media there is a real mix of events and discussions to suit everyone.

Pit your literary wits in the specially created pub quiz or, if you're aged between 13 and 19, take part in the teen poetry slam and you could win £50. and runs until. For full listings have a look at the Book Festival brochure.

Literary gifts: Twilight necklace

We are putting together a bookish gift wishlist and today's featured item is a crocheted vampire bite necklace available on U.S. online craft site, Etsy.com.

How to knit a poem

A group of Manchester Central Library knitters have created some of the letters for the giant woollen verse unveiled to mark the Poetry Society centenary. "We knitted the letter 'N' and some patterned pieces" said Rose Ryan, Reader Development Officer for Manchester Libraries and a member of Complete Knitters, who meet in the library.

More than 800 knitting enthusiasts were involved in knitting and crocheting individual letters to create the 13 x 9 metre, hand-knitted version of Dylan Thomas’s ‘In my Craft or Sullen Art’ (which can be read in full at the Poetry Society website).

The giant knitted poem was displayed at the Southbank Centre, London, to help celebrate National Poetry Day Live, and will be on show in Swansea, Thomas’s home town, at the end of October. Thereafter it will tour to Manchester and beyond - watch this space for details!

Poem of the Month: Paisley Rain by Rebecca Willmott

November's Poem of the Month is Paisley Rain by Rebecca Willmott. Rebecca is a writer, poet and artist and she blogs at Doll With Big Eyes. Rebecca writes poetry on fantasy fairy tale themes with a distorted subtext and she often accompanies the poems with paintings and textile work. Paisley Rain is influenced by blossom that falls onto the ground in spring. Rebecca says "I often run through the blossom and the colourful surroundings make me feel like I'm part of a beautiful postcard photograph".

Paisley Rain



You collect insects in your pocket as you run through cartoon coloured fields in the setting sun.
The trees sneeze cherry pink blossom, showering your face, you gather petals in your polka dotted teapot and scatter them at unknowing dove’s feet, raining a paisley splendour, painting the floor seaside colours of pink, white and red rum.
You make footprints in the flower bed, the one where you once slept, you leave puzzling patterns for me to follow because last time I misplaced you and found you in a tree that was hollow.
I push you into a pillow full of blossoms, peering at your eyes makes me lose my sight, just for one moment. You make me feel like a live in a bubble made of glass.
I see a silhouette of a fawn in the distance, mysterious and gentle just like you, remember when I held your hand till dawn?
We collected pine cones in the winter, our fairytale romance has just began to flourish, now it has wilted like spring’s daffodils against winter’s harsh blister.
We placed the pine cones by the shining windowsill, we imagined the sun would turn the tips to a rich golden colour and then we could sell them to walking men with top hats and forever eat sugar buns.
I see you fall asleep amongst the daffodils, I will love you forever as I place a sharp rose thorn across your perfect porcelain cheek. You are no longer an English rose but a bleeding distress as I gaze upon you I see your eyelids wept. And when you scream with pain, no one will hear as they will have their hands over their gossiping ears. And you wonder why no one stopped to help, but you faint at the blossom’s intoxicating scent.
I want to reach the season where your twigs are so longer harsh and you rain pink blossom like fairy dust that scatters and decorates the grey floor with coloured buttons of paisley splendour. Remember when We carved our love in trees we thought would last forever but the branches of the tree snapped and bled skeletal dead leaves, the bark flaked and splintered my nettled skin, reminding me of my previous sin. And if you look at us now through a mirror image we would no longer be together as the branches fell and broke my delicate neck, shattering our love forever.

I tried to follow your twisted branch of thought but I stumble as I splintered on your prickly bark and this is how I fall.

Twitter novel 'November In Manchester' starts its first chapter

Ambitious social media novel 'November In Manchester', began its fictional tale yesterday with the launch of its official website, www.novemberinmanchester.com

The not-for-profit project will run until Monday 30th November and the site will allow readers to follow the story of eight characters via regular Twitter updates and blog posts.

The site is the central hub of the story; presenting character biographies, bringing together all Twitter and blog updates and showcasing the catalogue of user-submitted photographs that make the story personal to Manchester.

The website will also have a daily summary of what has happened in the story so far, making it easy for new users to follow the work of fiction.

Tom Mason, creator of the project said; “We received a great response to our request for photos, events and videos, which gives us confidence that the story will have a real authenticity. It is very important that the novel fairly represents the vibrant nature of the city; plenty can happen within a month and thankfully Manchester isn't short of things for the characters to do.

"We have been setting up the backstory for the characters over the past couple of weeks and established Manchester venues, unaware of their fictional nature, have responded to their blogs and tweets. Now the story has officially begun, we hope to see more users and venues interacting with the characters.

"Telling a story over this period of time via social media networks such as Twitter is a daunting prospect, but it will be exciting to see if a novel can run via these mediums.”

Ruth Estevez - Meeting Coty @ Chorlton Book Festival

A scriptwriter on BBC’s Bob the Builder, Ruth Estevez’s first novel, Meeting Coty, explores choices between relationships and a career with the most successful perfume maker of the 1920s. Ruth will be talking about blending fact and fiction, relationships and a career and reading from her novel, "Meeting Coty."

Ruth is currently working on the sequel to Meeting Coty and you can keep up with her thoughts about writing on her blog AromaticWords.

If you want to know more about Francois Coty, one of the great perfume makers of his generation, join the debate about how people manage all the different elements in their lives, or just sit back and listen, please join us at Chorlton Library on Monday, 9th of November at 2pm. This is a free event.

Off on a word tour with Chorlton Book Festival

Off on a word tour with Chorlton Book Festival
by guest blogger, Clare Conlon.

Cosying up with a good read is probably one of the nicer aspects of the nights drawing in and the weather taking a turn for the worse, but if you can bear to get out from between the covers (in both the blanket and the book sense), the Chorlton Book Festival looks promising for both readers and writers.

Starting next Monday (9 November), the fifth annual festival is shaping up to be quite a fortnight. It would be a cliché to say that there's something for everyone, but with novelists, short story writers, poets, playwrights, historians, non-fiction authors and bloggers, most forms of writing do seem to be covered. Even those strange people who don't like reading are included: to coincide with the festival, Chorlton Film Institute will be screening Elegy, an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel The Dying Animal.

In fact, the festival is getting out and about quite a bit this year. Former Chorlton (now Didsbury) resident Elizabeth Baines is going to be reading from her new novel, Too Many Magpies, at Lounge bar, while local author and short story writer Robert Graham will be hanging out up the road at Lloyd's Hotel. Chopin will open its doors briefly, so Chorlton Telling Tales can get busy spinning some yarns and the Spread Eagle will be holding the festival's first-ever quiz night, with prizes and everything!

Chorlton Library also plays a big part, hosting readings by Manchester-based crime writer (and former Chorlton schools inspector) Bill Rogers and novelist (and Bob The Builder scriptwriter) Ruth Estevez, talks by local historians Chris Makepeace and Christopher Hall, and the monthly Manky Poets get-together with MC copland smith and guest poet Melanie Rees.

As well as the literati, Chorlton Book Festival will feature the Twitterati, and, as a blogger, I can't miss the workshop on social media for writers by Manchester Digital Development Agency's Adrian Slatcher. I'll also be timing my book returns for the Sunday, when complimentary coffee and cakes are on the menu to promote the new weekend opening hours.

To get the young'uns into reading, there's a family fun day all about pirates, a chance to hear Elaine Bousfield read from her magical fantasy The Jewel Keepers, and a teen slam contest, judged by street poet Mike Garry and with £50 up for grabs.

See, I told you there was something for everyone...

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Clare Conlon is a freelance writer, editor and press officer. Her blog, Words & Fixtures, won Best New Blog in the 2009 Manchester Blog Awards.

Meet authors Helen Dugdale & Alison Kervin

Getting married or celebrating a civil partnership? November sees our very first wedding fair - with a difference! If you want to have a do without frilly meringue dresses and equally over-inflated price tags, then we know some people you’ll want to meet.

Journalist and freelance writer, Helen Dugdale, will be launching her new book, Bridal Moments, an essential survival guide for anyone who wants to tame wedding chaos and control their inner Bridezilla.

Best-selling author Alison Kervin (The WAG’s Diary) will also be dropping in to talk about her new novel Celebrity Bride, a sparkling romantic comedy about an ordinary girl who finds herself right at the heart of the celebrity wedding of the season.

Alison Kervin is an award-winning freelance writer and journalist and was the Chief Sports Interviewer for the Daily Telegraph newspaper, producing a regular weekly sports interview for the Saturday edition of the paper. Alison has written eight highly-acclaimed books including two previous novels, The Wag's Diary and A Wag Abroad.

Let us introduce you to creative cake makers, quirky photographers, fabulous florists and suppliers of exquisite accessories and wonderful venues. Enjoy a free glass of wine - served by the gorgeous Butlers in the Buff - and for the incurable romantics, a free novel from our friends at Mills & Boon.

Everyone welcome. You don’t need an invitation to this do, and you can sit wherever you like!

Central Library, Committee Room, Saturday 7 November, 12-4pm