Five to see at Manchester Literature Festival

Preview by The Skinny North | 13 Sep 2016

There's lots to see at this year's Manchester Literature Festival, but if we had to whittle down our highlights, here are the five events we'd pick

Olivia Laing: The Lonely City 

We're living in an age of loneliness, and it's killing us, argued writer George Monbiot in a widely read essay from 2014. In her critically acclaimed book The Lonely City, Olivia Laing has a somewhat more positive outlook, questioning why the state of solitude is seen as a source of shame in our society and considering the creative possibilities of aloneness. Tonight she will discuss her own experience of loneliness in New York and how it helped her understand the work of artists such as Edward Hopper and Andy Warhol, who occupied a liminal space in the city that never sleeps.

International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 17 Oct, 6pm, £7 (£5) 

Hwang Jung-eun & Deborah Smith

Translator Deborah Smith made headlines earlier this year as the joint winner of the Man Booker International Prize with South Korean writer Han Kang, for The Vegetarian. Tonight Smith joins another of the Korean authors she works with, Hwang Jung-eun, to discuss the young writer's novel One Hundred Shadows, which is published through Smith's own imprint, Tilted Axis. The two will also talk about the growing interest in Korean fiction globally, and the art of translation. 

International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 17 Oct, 7pm, £7 (£5) 

Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi

One of the foremost African voices writing in Arabic, Sudanese poet Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi will be reading from his new bilingual Arabic-English collection A Monkey at the Window (with works in English read by writer Travis Elborough). Resident in London since 2012, Al-Raddi had previously been culture editor of the Al-Sudani newspaper but was forced to leave his country due to the political situation under president Omar Al-Bashir. This is a great opportunity to hear some of the Arabic-speaking world's most lucid poetry. 

Central Library, 17 Oct, 1pm, free (booking recommended)


Deborah Levy

Deborah Levy: Fashion & Freedom 

Fresh off the back of praise for her latest novel Hot Milk – a confronting exploration of a mother-daughter relationship in the Spanish heat – British author Deborah Levy comes to Manchester Literature Festival with a new work, written in response to the Fashion & Freedom exhibition currently on show at Manchester Art Gallery. The display looks at the impact the First World War had on the role of women and fashion, and includes designs by Vivienne Westwood and Holly Fulton as well as students from universities in Leeds, Manchester and Salford. Levy will present her piece in the space and then discuss her work.

Manchester Art Gallery, 21 Oct, 1pm, free (booking recommended

Young Identity: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

The Skinny recently encountered poetry collective Young Identity on a late-night train, where their impromptu performances turned into a full-on poetry slam, enchanting tired commuters in the same carriage. For this special event, the Young Identity crew unite with spoken word collaborators Speakeasy and Inna Voice for an invigorating celebration of young people's voices in the city. 

Contact, 22 Oct, 7.30pm, £11 (£6) 

We'd also recommend Sungju Lee (Central Library, 15 Oct, 1pm, £7/£5), the North Korea-born writer and activist whose memoir recounting his abandonment at 12 years old, Every Falling Star, offers a vivid portrait of a young boy forced to fend for himself. 


Manchester Literature Festival, 7-23 Oct http://manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk