In Other Words, 23 Apr-19 May

After two years and a £50m spit and polish, Liverpool's Central Library officially reopens on 17 May. What better way to mark the occasion than with a festival celebrating the written and spoken word? “We knew a literature festival was the perfect way to celebrate the reopening of Central Library,” says Liverpool City Councillor for culture and tourism, Wendy Simon, of the inaugural In Other Words festival, “and we have been inundated with internationally acclaimed authors, literary agents and groups asking to be involved.”

With an emphasis on the eclectic, In Other Words – which commences on World Book Night – plays host to more than 350 events, from the DIY to the more ostensibly academic, offering something for readers and writers alike. It opens with the UK & Ireland's flagship World Book Night event, the first time it has taken place outside of London, with authors Philippa Gregory, Jasper Fforde, Patrick Ness and Jackie Kay and the enduringly wonderful Jeanette Winterson giving readings and Q&As in St George's Hall, next door to the Central Library, on 23 April.

Elsewhere, Liverpool publishers Wordscapes are organising a Guerrilla Book Swap, where readers will be provided with bookplates to attach to the front of a beloved tome, which they can then leave around the city (on the bus, in your favourite cafe, on the bar in your local) for someone else to pick up and enjoy. The project culminates in a one-day book swap at Metal at Edge Hill Station on 27 April. “It’s only a small thing,” says Wordscapes director Fiona Shaw, “but I hope the simple act of finding a book makes someone’s day.”

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"I hope the simple act of finding a book makes someone’s day” – Fiona Shaw

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Liverpool Hope University’s English department, meanwhile, are offering a somewhat loftier take on the festival with a series of five public lectures focusing on the works of Shakespeare, Austen, Hardy, F Scott Fitzgerald and Sara Paretsky, encouraging us to engage with questions on the breezy subjects of time and the human condition (23 Apr-16 May). Elsewhere, motor-mouth Janet Street-Porter will let loose on the “public school elite and why class still matters” as part of the Rebel Rants series (3 May).

For something slightly less collegial, the Here Come The Girls event on 24 April toasts all things chick lit, with genre doyenne Jane Costello in town to launch her latest novel The Wish List.

Curated in partnership with Liverpool-based literary organisation Writing on the Wall, In Other Words makes a point of celebrating the region's literary royalty alongside guests from further afield: you can enjoy an afternoon tea with Bootle-hailing historical fiction and short story writer Maureen Lee (Empire Atrium, 28 Apr), while poets Roger McGough and Brian Patten make a rare appearance together for The Beat Goes On (St George's Hall, 26 Apr), both having found fame separately in one of the bestselling poetry anthologies of all time, 1967's The Mersey Sound.

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Journaling

To put you in the literary mood, we caught up with Wordscapes director Fiona Shaw, who is running a journaling workshop at In Other Words, to give us some directions on how to have a few epistolary adventures of your own...

• Appreciative journaling is a positive psychology technique which helps you notice the positive things in life
• When you're starting off in appreciative journaling, we'd suggest you try and capture something every day, but that's more to get you into the routine. It might be something as simple as seeing a spring flower. bloom on the way to work, a compliment from a friend, a favourite song on the radio, or a more significant milestone in your family or career, but the effect is cumulative, and overwhelmingly positive.
• At the workshops you'll hear a series of tips on what to notice – or questions to ask yourself if you're struggling to see the good things – including exercises to help you develop those observations as you get more used to journaling.