Event type: Festival

Don’t miss this special opportunity to hear from one of the most celebrated writers of our time, Colm Tóibín, in conversation with Professor Frank Shovlin.

Tóibín will discuss his striking new short story collection, The News from Dublin — a profound and deeply moving sequence of stories that span continents and generations, from wartime Ireland to Barcelona, Argentina and beyond. Moving between lives marked by exile, secrecy and loss, these luminous narratives explore family ties, displacement, and the enduring pull of home and memory.

Born in Enniscorthy in 1955, Tóibín is the author of acclaimed novels and short story collections including The Empty Family, Brooklyn, The Master, The Magician and Long Island. A three-time Booker Prize finalist, he has also received the David Cohen Prize for Literature, served as Laureate for Irish Fiction (2022–2024), and was Chancellor of the University of Liverpool until 2017.

He will be joined by Frank Shovlin, Professor of Irish Literature at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies, and an acclaimed critic and editor, known for his work on Joyce and John McGahern, including The Letters of John McGahern (Faber & Faber) and the forthcoming biography John McGahern: A Writing Life.

Venue:  The Black-E, 1 Great George Street, Liverpool, L1 5EW

Tickets: Book and ticket bundle: £28, ticket only: £12/£10 concessions

At a time when cultural memory feels fragile and hard-won progress is under strain, Black Women Speak Volumes centres voices too often pushed to the margins — particularly those of older Black women whose lives, labour and creativity have shaped Britain in profound and lasting ways. Dr Rebecca Loy will chair a powerful conversation with esteemed authors and activists Cathy Tyson, Yvvette Edwards, Maria O’Reilly and Linda Loy.

Presented in partnership with Speaking Volumes, to celebrate the publication of Challenging Britannia: Black British Women Speak Volumes edited by Sharmilla Beezmohun and published by the George Padmore Institute.

Join us for an evening of intergenerational dialogue, testimony and celebration — reclaiming space in the historical record and amplifying voices that refuse to be overlooked.

Yvvette Edwards is a British author of Montserratian heritage. Her novels A Cupboard Full of Coats (Kirkus Best Book of the Year) and The Mother have been widely acclaimed, with the latter named by Bernardine Evaristo as one of her Top 20 Books by Black British Womxn Writers. Her most recent tragi-comic novel, good good loving, continues her powerful exploration of love, survival and the emotional landscapes of Black British life, rendered with depth, humour and unflinching honesty. Her work has been nominated for major awards including the Man Booker Prize, NAACP Image Award and Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Her short story Security appears in New Daughters of Africa. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Liverpool-born Cathy Tyson rose to prominence for her acclaimed performance in Mona Lisa (1986) alongside Bob Hoskins. She has since built a distinguished career across film, television and theatre, including Band of Gold, Emmerdale and work with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She is known for powerful performances in both mainstream and socially engaged roles.

Maria O’Reilly is a lifelong racial justice activist from Liverpool. A member of the Liverpool 8 Defence Committee following the 1981 Uprisings, she later worked for the Commission for Racial Equality (1979–1989) and served as Coordinator of the L8 Law Centre (1989–2002), helping provide vital legal and social justice services to the community.

Dr Rebecca Loy is Diversity and Inclusion Partner at National Museums Liverpool, specialising in oppression, diversity and inclusion. She holds a PhD in this field and was named on the Northern Power Women Future List in 2023.

Linda Loy was an active member of the Liverpool Black Organisation and the L8 Defence Committee, campaigning for the establishment of the L8 Law Centre.

Venue: The Women’s Organisation, 54 James Street, Liverpool L1 0AB

The Black-E, 1 Great George Street, Liverpool L1 5EWThursday, May 21  •  7 PM – 9:30 PM

On 1 April, Chris Nineham, vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition, and Ben Jamal, Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, were found guilty under the Public Order Act for organising a peaceful pro-Palestine demonstration in London on 18 January 2025. Responding to the verdict, Nineham described it as “one more indication of a disturbing authoritarian turn in British society” and called for urgent discussion about how it can be challenged.

He is joined by Stephen Kapos, Holocaust survivor and lifelong anti-racist activist who was questioned by police following the 18 January demonstration, and Basma Ghalayini, Manchester-based editor, translator and activist born and raised in the Gaza Strip.

Campaigners for civil liberties argue that this case is about far more than a single protest. They place it within the wider context of increasing restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly in Britain. Recent legislation — including the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 — has significantly expanded police powers to impose conditions on demonstrations and restrict protests deemed disruptive. The proposed Crime and Policing Bill could go further still, with measures such as “cumulative impact” raising concerns that protests may be curtailed simply because they occur frequently, rather than because of participants’ conduct.

Many warn that these developments pose a serious threat not only to solidarity with Palestine, but to democracy itself.

Join Stephen Kapos, Basma Ghalayini and Chris Nineham for an urgent discussion on what these legal shifts mean, whether democratic rights are being eroded, and how they can be defended.

Basma Ghalayini is an editor and translator, born in Khan Younis and raised in Gaza City. She is the editor of Palestine +100: Stories from a Century After the Nakba, Voices of Resistance: Diaries of Genocide, and Palestine – 1: Stories from the Eve of the Nakba. Her translations have been published by Commonwealth Writers, Deep Vellum Press and Comma Press in books including Banthology, The Book of Ramallah and The Book of Cairo. As a journalist, she has written for the New York Times and Wasafari. 

Chris Nineham is a founder and vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition. Arrested in 2025 during a pro-Palestinian march, he pleaded not guilty to Public Order Act charges. He helped organise the historic 2003 anti-war protests, the 2001 Genoa G8 protests, and the European and World Social Forums. A regular media commentator, he writes for Stop the War, Counterfire, and others.  

Stephen Kapos is a Hungarian-born and Holocaust survivor whose life story spans some of the most dramatic events of the 20th century. Born in Budapest in 1936, he survived the Holocaust as a child, an experience that profoundly shaped his worldview and later campaigning. After emigrating to the United Kingdom following the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, he trained and worked as an architect and exhibited as a visual artist. A Labour Party member since the 1990s, Stephen Kapos served in Holborn & St Pancras under MP Frank Dobson. In 2023 he resigned after being threatened with expulsion for speaking at a Holocaust Memorial Day event organized by the Socialist Labour Network, which the party had proscribed. He denounced what he described as a “McCarthyite” culture under Keir Starmer’s leadership.  He is an active speaker and educator on Holocaust remembrance, dedicating much of his later life to sharing his testimony with younger generations to promote awareness, tolerance, and historical understanding He remains active in the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Holocaust Survivors Against Genocide. 

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster — an event that displaced hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, contaminated land across Europe and irrevocably altered global attitudes toward nuclear power.

Bringing together four authors who have engaged deeply with its human and political legacy, this event explores the complex realities faced by those affected. From research conducted in the Exclusion Zone on the cusp of Russia’s war on Ukraine, to intimate poetry born of catastrophe, memoir reflecting on life in the disaster’s aftermath, and examinations of the long-reaching psychological impact of displacement, the discussion spans genres and generations.

Philippa Holloway, Alex Lockwood, Mario Petrucci and Kateryna Keim will reflect on how they have navigated these histories — shaping narratives that centre lived experience, honour resilience, and ensure the legacy of 26 April 1986 is neither simplified nor forgotten.

Philippa Holloway is a writer and academic with a varied career history that includes being a goatherd, a medical technician at a racing circuit, and a library assistant.

Her short fiction has been published internationally, and her debut novel, The Half-life of Snails was longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje prize for ‘a distinguished work evoking the spirit of place,’ and has been featured in an international podcast, serialised in a national newspaper, and praised on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row as ‘powerful, evocative… a terrific book.’ Her second book, Untethered – a collection of short stories – was published by Parthian in 2024.

Mario Petrucci is an award-winning poet, ecologist, broadcaster and literary translator, widely recognised as a founding force and leading voice in Ecopoetry.  A Cambridge physicist with a PhD from UCL, he has published numerous collections including  Heavy Water: a poem for Chernobyl, which secured the Daily Telegraph/ Arvon prize.  He has collaborated on major ecological films, commissioned by the Natural History Museum and shown on TV.  A former Royal Literary Fund Fellow, he has fulfilled groundbreaking poetry residencies at the Imperial War Museum and BBC Radio 3, working at the intersection of science, ecology, war and public art.  His archives are held by the British Library, and he is Ecopoetry Network Coordinator for the World Academy of Art and Science.

www.mariopetrucci.comhttps://facebook.com/writingintofreedom

Alex Lockwood is an author, activist and former academic who lives on a narrowboat, currently moored in London. His fiction and nonfiction focuses on our relationship with the environment and each other, and his debut novel, The Chernobyl Privileges is a psychological drama that explores the traumatic experience of surviving disaster, praised for its sensitive and compassionate portrayal of the legacy of the event. His most recent novel (Daddio!, 2025) is a family drama wrapped inside a climate comedy. He is the co-founder of a number of grassroots organisations involved in direct action and is editorial director for the cultural think tank Absurd Intelligence. Daddio! is available via the Hard Art collective with a foreword from Jay Griffiths and music accompaniment from Brian Eno. You can connect on LinkedIn.

Kateryna Keim has been writing since early childhood – talent from the grandfather (they say), who died age 45 in 1986, twp months after Chornobyl disaster, a pure accident (they say) – this inspired me to write a novel “Radioactive”. Me in 2026: Recently moved to Munich, living and working in Germany in IT for 10 years now. Organising Writing Salon in English for international women to promote creative writing for beginners. Working on 2 novels and collection of short stories. Taking part in various Ukrainian literature events abroad.

All profits from this event will go to the Clean Futures Fund: Providing Support For Communities Affected By Industrial Accidents – Clean Futures Fund

This event takes place online.