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The book:
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Events: Book Readings, Performances, Workshops etc
| Sat 3rd Nov '07, 2-4pm |
Liverpool - Homotopia Loved Up in Libraries event |
| Wed 31st Oct '07, 7.30pm |
Heaton Park (North Manchester) - Hallowe'en Storytelling |
| 16th June '07 |
Manchester Student Pride |
| 27th to 30th Oct '05 |
York Lesbian Arts Festival |
| Sun 6th Mar '05, 2-3pm |
Workshop, Women's Day Manchester |
| Tue 16th Nov '04, 11am |
Workshop, Manchester Uni Student Union |
| Mon 30th Aug '04 |
Book reading, Manchester Pride |
| Sat 7th Aug '04 |
Book reading, Brighton Pride |
| Sat 31st Jul '04 |
Camp Fire Stories, Big Chill festival |
| Fri 30th Jul '04 |
Multimedia performance, Big Chill festival |
| Wed 28th Jul '04 |
Camp Fire Stories, Manchester Gay/Bisexual Young Women's Summer Camp |
| Thurs 15th Jul '04 |
ALL FM, 5 - 6pm |
| Mon 12th Jul '04 |
BBC Radio London, Joanne Good |
| Sun 11th Jul '04 |
7 Sundays at 7 - Gay's the Word |
| Fri 9th Jul '04 |
Llangollen Fringe Festival |
| Thurs 1st Jul '04 |
Woman's Hour, Radio 4 |
| Wed 9th Jun '04 |
Manchester launch - The Dying of Delight |
| Tue 1st Jun '04 |
Sassy Northern Birds, Manchester |
| Tue 25th May '04 |
London launch - The Dying of Delight |
| Mon 24th May '04 |
BBC Radio London, Joanne Good |
| Wed 21st Apr '04 |
Sassy Northern Birds, London |
| Tue 9th Mar '04 |
Spit Lit literary festival, London |
I've always loved reading out loud, ever since my dad read bedtime stories to me as a kid. Well, he didn't so much read them as perform them. A concerned relative once approached my mother about the excessive discipline she thought she heard coming from behind the bedroom door. But it was just Dad playing the part of an angry character with typical zeal.
My flirtation with acting came to an abrupt end when my mate Anna burst into laughter in the middle of my big monologue. I was playing the bitter hunchbacked sister in Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba. To be fair though, it's hard to hear the line "My heart is bursting like a bitter pomegranate" without laughing. We consoled ourselves by driving to London in the middle of the night and arriving at 4am, just as the club Trade was opening its doors. Well, it was 1992 after all.
These days I restrict myself to getting ludicrously excited about opportunities to read from my book. I rather enjoy doing workshops, too.
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"Liverpool Libraries are going all rainbow coloured and are putting on a gay and lesbian literature festival as a new strand to their ever expanding homotopia festival.
The festival is to be launched by Armistead Maupin in June but will take place in the two weeks after York Lesbian Arts Festival (i.e. 29th Oct - 11th Nov '07). Should be something yummy, as it's something the council and libraries want to grow for next year's Capital of Culture.
There will be one big launch event at Liverpool Central Library with workshops, speakers and food etc …also part of the format of the festival is to go out to the suburbs and run “Get loved up” in the libraries - sessions with much glitter, love tea and loving up going on in some frankly deprived and sometimes depressing areas…and to do some readings with authors to spread cheer and share stories with local residents."
I'm going to be doing a workshop with Linda Innes in the Central ("Hornby") Library in Liverpool on Saturday 3rd November, some time between 12noon and 4pm. Rather looking forward to this.
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I've got a wonderful new string to my bow - I've started storytelling. In this case it's for children, but I also do adult events.
On Hallowe'en (Wed 31st Oct '07), Heaton Park (North Manchester) are running a spooky event in the Farm Centre, and I've been asked to tell a scary story or two. It's free, so bring your kids and have fun.
Oh, and I've written a story based in Heaton Park, especially for the occasion. It's called Screaming Willie and if you want a copy it's £3.50 (including p+p). Email me (remove "spam" from the email address - it's there to stop spam).
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Jenny Roberts and I will be doing book readings from 5.30pm to 7pm as part of Manchester Student Pride on Sat 16th June. I don't know the venue yet but I'm guessing it will be somewhere upstairs in Manchester University Students' Union.
I'll be reading from The Dying of Delight, but am also planning on giving my new book it's first ever public airing - rather looking forward to that.
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Up until 2003, there was a lesbian book festival every year in York (my home town), run by Libertas book shop. It attracted thousands, but unfortunately the bookshop closed in 2004, and the owners focused their efforts on their website.
But the tradition has now been revived, and this year sees the first York Lesbian Arts Festival. I'll be taking part in various forms. Details to be announced - watch this space, or have a look at the festival website.
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I'm doing a creative writing workshop as part of the International Women's Day celebrations in Manchester, on Sunday 6th March.
It's running from 2-3pm in Committee Room 3, on level 2 of the town hall.
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I'll be doing a creative writing workshop for Manchester University's LGBT Society, on Tue 16th Nov at 11am, somewhere in the Student Union building.
It'll be in Meeting Room 1 (MR1) on the top floor of the old Union building on Oxford Rd (next to the Academy).
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Helen Walsh, Gwendoline Riley and I are all doing a joint event on Wed 21st April at The Boogaloo (nr Highgate tube). We're being billed as "Sassy Northern Birds", LOL. We'll all be doing readings from our books.
Helen Walsh's debut novel Brass has just been published by Canongate. It's raw and extremely moving, and I enjoyed it immensely. She's being billed as the female Irvine Welsh. She's been getting a lot of coverage, and it looks like she'll go far.
More on Helen Walsh
Gwendoline Riley's first novel, Cold Water, stirred up a lot of literary fuss. At 22, she was earmarked as an outstanding new voice by The Guardian, and she bagged a 2001 Betty Trask Award for first-time novelists. She has been compared to Johnny Rotten. Her latest novel, Sick Notes, has just been published.
More on Gwendoline Riley
The first Sassy Northern Birds event took place on Wed 21st April at The Boogaloo, London.
It was a big success - see blog entries of 22nd and 26th April for more details.
This event was repeated in Manchester, on Tue 1st June at Tmesis bar, Lloyd St, Manchester.
Well, it would have been if it weren't cancelled at the eleventh hour! Never mind though, a few people turned up and we adjourned to the pub, which was loads of fun. See June blog (1st June entry) for details.
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We’re launching The Dying of Delight twice - first in London and then in Manchester.
We wanted to do something with more of an impact than the usual dry old readings, so we’re doing a full multimedia performance. I’m going to ham it up to the max (why do you think I wrote a book in the first place?), and I’ll be accompanied by a live DJ and some custom-made video clips.
The DJ will be Enchanted Gordon (aka Ally Fogg). Enchanted Gordon has a fortnightly radio show, 8-10pm on Sunday nights, on ALL FM. All shows are streamed live online.
The video clips are being put together by a team of VJs, two of whom are Amukidi (Big Chill resident, aka John Rixon) and Jim Horsfield from Myogenic. I'll post more details here as soon as I get them.
The London event took place on Tue 25th May at Prowler Stores, 9 Caledonian Road, London N1 (around the corner from Kings Cross station).
It seemed to go very well indeed - embarrassingly large amounts of clapping, and tons of positive feedback. Read more in the May blog (30th May). Very excited about the Manchester do now!
The Manchester launch will be a chance for all the Northern lot to get pissed and over-excited.
This'll take place on Wed 9th June at green room, 54 - 56 Whitworth St West, Manchester, M1 5WW (a few doors down from the Cornerhouse).
*STOP PRESS* We've just had confirmation that Chloe Poems is going to perform a couple of poems for us, and do me the honour of introducing me. It all feels a bit weddingy - like he's giving me away! :o) Anyway I'm delighted.
Doors open 7pm.
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Queer Writers And Poets are running a series of events over the summer at Gay's the Word bookshop (London), with three queer writers at each event. Entry is £2, which will get you a glass of wine, some nibbles, and some people like me.
I'll be reading on Sunday 11th July.
The event starts at 7pm.
The venue is Gay's the Word bookshop, which is at 66 Marchmont Street, London WC1N 1AB, two minutes walk from Russell Square Tube Station and ten minutes from either Euston or King's Cross.
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I've been invited to do a reading at the Llangollen Fringe Festival. I'll be on in The Fringe Shed (on Parade St) at 7pm on Friday 9th July, followed by Transglobal Underground at 8pm in the same venue. This has only just been confirmed, so I might not be on their website yet.
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On Thurs 15th July, some time between 5pm and 6pm, I'll be interviewed on ALL FM, a local community radio station. You can listen online here.
On 24th May, between midnight and 1am (Monday evening / Tuesday morning), I was on Joanne Good's radio show on BBC London.
I was there for a full hour, talking about my book, but also whatever was in the newspapers for the following day. It was supposed to be quite a lighthearted show, but I still managed to end up arguing about nationalism with the deputy editor of the Daily Star for half an hour.
I was a nervous wreck, but apparently they liked it, and they've asked me back on Monday 12th July. You can listen online here.
I'm also being interviewed by GMR (local BBC radio in Manchester) at some point, but I don't know when yet.
Radio 4's Woman's Hour ran an interview with me and Jenni Murray on Thurs 1st July. This has always been a little dream of mine, so I was over the moon. See May and June blogs for more ramblings on this subject.
You can listen online here.
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Manchester Gay Centre is organising a summer camp for gay youth in Hebden Bridge from 28th July to 1st August.
In the evening on Wed 28th July, from 5-7pm I'll be doing some story-telling and a small workshop around the camp fire (how lovely!).
I've put the full details of the camp, including itinerary and application form, here.
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The multimedia performance described above will also be repeated at the Big Chill's Eastnor festival, in the Media Mix tent. Currently the slot I have is Friday night (30th July), 7.50pm-8.50pm. But the timings are still being organised, and my slot has already moved a couple of times, so don't take this as gospel.
More details on the Media Mix tent line-up can be found here. Our performance will be staged as part of Words In Motion - the new literary movement of The Big Chill.
I'm also doing campfire stories on the Sat night (see below), and I'm being interviewed on Big Chill FM on Saturday morning, around 9.45am.
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On the Saturday night at the Big Chill's Eastnor festival, I'm doing some poetry and a book reading around a campfire with NuPoetics. It'll be happening from 9pm, in the arts trail. I do approve of all this campfire stuff!
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Brighton and Hove mobile library service have invited me to do a reading at Brighton Pride on 7th August. I'll be doing this under the awning of their van, in the park at the end of the demo/parade, at some time between 1.30pm and 3pm, probably.
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I'll be doing a reading at Manchester Pride, in the Women's Space, on Mon 30th Aug, between 3pm and 4pm. It'll be good to be doing something on home turf!
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