Northwest Book Highlights – January 2016

The New Year brings literary events worth bracing the weather for, from Yorkshire’s emerging star poet Helen Mort to music writing giant Jon Savage

Preview by Alice Horne | 06 Jan 2016

Liverpool

This year marks 100 years since British-born artist and writer Mina Loy wrote her experimental play Collision, the inspiration behind painter Melissa Gordon’s new exhibition Fallible Space at the Bluecoat. Loy’s huge range of eccentric and experimental work has seen her labelled a Modernist, Surrealist, Futurist and feminist, though she has been only quietly remembered alongside her literary peers, such as Marianne Moore and Gertrude Stein. Attempting to set this straight, Gordon will be joined at the Bluecoat on 30 Jan by academic and poet Sandeep Parmar to celebrate Loy’s legacy through performance and discussion. Collision will also be staged at the venue for the first time ever on 22 Jan.

While Loy’s death ushered in the end of literary modernism in 1966, The Beatles were releasing their seventh studio album, Revolver. In fact, 1966 has been dubbed by writer and journalist Jon Savage as “the year the decade exploded.” Rising to prominence as a music writer during punk’s glory days, Savage is most famous for his 1991 book on the history of punk and the Sex Pistols, England’s Dreaming. His latest title, 1966, explores what came to be a defining year in global pop culture, looking at seminal artists from The Velvet Underground to The Beatles in the explosive social and cultural milieu of the Swinging Sixties. Savage will be discussing his book with Liverpool-based novelist Kevin Sampson at Waterstones Liverpool on 14 Jan.

Leeds

In Leeds, Sheffield-born poet Helen Mort joins forces with Samuel Moore, a flamenco guitarist, to showcase an unusual blend of original poetry and improvised music at Otley Courthouse on 16 Jan. Shortlisted for the prestigious TS Eliot Prize in 2013, Mort’s widely acclaimed poetry often engages with the post-Thatcher political landscape of northern England, and has more recently seen her named one of the Poetry Book Society’s Next Generation Poets. The event will feature solo performances from both artists, as well as the chance to learn more about how this unlikely collaboration came to be.

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 Neu! Reekie! brings Hollie McNish, Eleanor Rees and Eugene Kelly to Liverpool


Salford

Elsewhere, writers John Osborne and Molly Naylor arrive in Salford this month as part of a tour of their first poetry show. Naylor first appeared on the scene with her solo show about surviving the 2005 London bombings, Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think of You, which debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2010 before being adapted for BBC Radio 4. Meanwhile, Osborne published his first collection of poems, Most People Aren’t That Happy, Anyway, in 2013 and has since written poems and stories for radio, including the hugely popular John Peel’s Shed. The duo have already proven to be a successful double act with their well-received television sitcom, After Hours, which launched on Sky 1 this autumn. Heading to The Lowry on 23 Jan, their poetry show promises to be equally entertaining.

Further afield

Finally, The Evening Star Poetry Group are reading their way through the second volume of William Wordsworth’s famous collection, Lyrical Ballads, on 5 Jan. Surrounded by the Romantic poet’s own collection of books at the Jerwood Centre, Wordsworth fans and newcomers alike are welcome to discuss and enjoy some of his finest poems in the very location that inspired them.


Myths of the Modern Woman, the Bluecoat, Liverpool, 30 Jan, 4pm, £3 (£2), thebluecoat.org.uk

Collision, the Bluecoat, Liverpool, 22 Jan, 7pm, free (booking required), thebluecoat.org.uk

Jon Savage in conversation with Kevin Sampson, Waterstones, Liverpool, 14 Jan, 6.30pm, £3 (£2), waterstones.com/events

Samuel Moore and Helen Mort, Otley Courthouse, Leeds, 16 Jan, 7.30pm, £12 (£10), otleycourthouse.org.uk

John Osborne and Molly Naylor, The Lowry, Salford, 23 Jan, 8pm, £12, thelowry.com

The Evening Star Poetry Group, Jerwood Centre, Grasmere, Cumbria, 5 Jan, 6pm, £5, wordsworth.org.uk