Event type: Literature

WoWFEST: Comma Press presents The Monster, Capital

Comma Press presents The Monster, Capital with Ian Carrington, Kiare Ladner and Sarah Schofield chaired by Ra Page, a bold new anthology from the acclaimed Theory Horror series, edited by David Sue and Ra Page.

Inspired by the writings of philosopher Mark Fisher and his concept of Capitalist Realism, this collection imagines capitalism as something monstrous — an abstract parasite, a zombie-maker, a force that consumes, reshapes and haunts our lives. Drawing on folk horror, body horror and the surreal, thirteen writers explore algorithmic obsession, parasocial addiction, vanishing communities and the eerie logic of the market.

A gothic reckoning with late capitalism — unsettling, urgent and darkly imaginative.

Ian Carrington is a Manchester writer who, as ‘Fat Roland’, has enjoyed a long performance career. He co-compered live literature night Bad Language, twice voted the UK’s best regular spoken word event. He has written features and columns for Electronic Sound magazine and fiction for Comma Press.

Kiare Ladner is the author of Nightshift, a novel about obsession and nocturnal lives (Picador 2021; HarperCollins 2022). Her short fiction has been anthologised, commissioned for radio and shortlisted in competitions, including the BBC National Short Story Award. She teaches and mentors writers in London. She grew up in South Africa and now lives in London. www.kiareladner.com

Sarah Schofield is an award-winning writer of short fiction. Her stories have appeared in several Comma Press anthologies, Best British Short Stories 2020 (Salt), Synaesthesia Magazine,  Morning Star, Woman’s Weekly, Hinterland and many others.  Sarah is a Creative Writing lecturer at Edge Hill University.Her debut collection Safely Gathered In was published by Comma Press in November 2021

Date: Wednesday 6th MayTime: 7pmVenue:  The Black-E, 1 Great George Street, Liverpool, L1 5EW,Tickets: £5

WoWFEST 2026: Desert Island Dissent with Linton Kwesi Johnson

 

Join legendary poet and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson for Desert Island Dissent — a powerful in-conversation event exploring art as a force for resistance.

In this special event, Johnson will consider the music, poetry and political works that have most profoundly shaped his life and activism. Drawing on his experiences of 1970s Britain, the rise of the National Front and the cultural resistance that followed, he will reflect on the moments that forged his voice and defined decades of struggle.

From dub poetry to political literature, the evening will explore the enduring power of creative expression to confront injustice, challenge dominant narratives and inspire collective action. At a time when old ideologies are resurfacing and reactionary politics are gaining ground, Johnson’s perspective offers a vital reminder that culture can provoke change — and that resistance has its own soundtrack.

An evening of reflection, performance and urgent conversation with one of the most influential political voices of our time.

Linton Kwesi Johnson

The award-winning reggae poet and political activist was born in Jamaican 1952 before moving to London in 1963. He studied at Goldsmiths College, was a member of the Black Panthers and was poetry editor of Race Today, introducing new voices to the British public, including Michael Smith and Oku Onuora. In 1974, the Race Today Collective published Linton’s first poetry book, Voices of the Living and the Dead.  

In 2002 he became only the second living poet and the first black poet to have his work included in Penguin’s Modern Classics series, under the title Mi Revalueshanary Fren. Penguin continue to publish him, now in their Selected Poems series.  

Linton’s first album Dread Beat An Blood was released in 1978. Since then, he has released fourteen albums made with long-time collaborator and producer, Dennis Bovell, and has been running his own record label, LKJ Records, since 1981. He is also a Trustee of the George Padmore Institute and Chair of 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning.

Venue: The British Music Experience, British Music Experience, Cunard Building, Pier Head, Liverpool, L3 1DS 

Photo Credit: Danny Da Costa

WoWFEST 2026: An Evening with Colm Tóibín

 

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

 

WoWFEST 2026: Launch of Buckled: a play by Helen Jeffery

Family, friendship and booze. Drinking to remember. Drinking to forget.How do you navigate sobriety in a world that revolves around drink?

Join playwright Helen Jeffery for the launch of the published playtext of Buckled, released by Salamander Street Press as part of WoWFEST26.

Originally commissioned by Unity Theatre for Up Next Festival and later touring across the North West, Buckled is a darkly funny, deeply human exploration of alcohol dependency and the relationships shaped by it. At once tender and unflinching, it examines the quiet pressures of a culture where there’s always an excuse for another drink.

During this intimate event, Helen will share extracts from the script and take part in a conversation about the play’s creation, development and journey to publication. Copies will be available on the night at a special discounted price.

Trigger warning: Alcohol dependency. Suggested age: 14+

Helen Jeffery is a playwright, poet, performer & director. A graduate of the Liverpool Everyman Playwright’s Programme she has had several plays produced including ‘The Brink’ and ‘Gun Metal Blue,’ a recipient of the Blink.Theatre Award for new writing.

Helen was commissioned by Unity Theatre, Liverpool to create Buckled as part of Up Next Festival 2023. In 2024 and 2025 it toured to several venues in the Northwest including The Atkinson, Southport, The Arts Centre, Edge Hill, 53 Two in Manchester and Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Helen is currently developing a new play for stage, as well as working as a dramaturg through her company ‘Sober Scribbles.’ More information about this and her other projects can be found here.

Venue: Unity Theatre Bar

 

WoWFEST 2026: Black Women Speak Volumes

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

 

WowFEST 2026: Democracy on Trial with Chris Nineham, Basma Ghalayini and Stephen Kapos

 

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. 

 

WoWFEST 2026: Cultural Fallout: Writing Chornobyl

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.

 

 

WoWFEST 2026: Joelle Taylor: Maryville

Joelle Taylor brings a staged reading of her new poetry collection to WOWFest; a searing, poetic excavation of 50 years of lesbian counterculture.

Following-on from her TS Eliot Prize-winning poetry collection C+nto & Othered Poems, Joelle Taylor’s Maryville charts the lives of four butch lesbians through five decades of underground queer history; tracing the culture, clubs and resistance that shaped their world.

With a vividly sketched cast of characters, the Maryville butch bar becomes a lens through which to consider the underground histories of queer London. The violence and pain of oppression and the beauty and intimacy of community are rendered in awe-inspiring high definition.

The performance is directed by acclaimed writer and director Neil Bartlett, with visuals from artist and filmmaker Sweatmother. Maryville explores the scars, hopes and potentialities of dyke identity and the queer underground.

Joelle Taylor is a queer, working class author of six plays, a novel, and four collections of poetry. Her most recent, C+NTO & Othered Poems won the 2021 TS Eliot Prize, the 2022 Polari Book Prize for LGBT authors, and is currently being adapted for the theatre. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the host and co- curator of Out-Spoken, the UK’s premier poetry and music club, currently resident at the Southbank Centre.

Neil Bartlett’s recent stage work includes Orlando in the West End with Emma Corrin and a live version of Derek Jarman’s film Blue at the Tate Gallery, with Russell Tovey, Travis Alabanza and Joelle Taylor. His most recent novel was the Polari Prize-nominated Address Book.

Sweatmother is an artist and filmmaker based in London, whose moving image work blends performance, self-recorded documentation, internet and archival materials to explore and make visible queer lived experiences.

Joelle Taylor: a staged performance of her new collection MaryvilleDate: Thursday 14th  MayTime: 8pmVenue: The Music Room, Philharmonic Hall Hope St, Liverpool L1 9BP

Writing on the Wall – The Writer’s Bloc Toxteth

 

The Writer’s Bloc is Writing on the Wall’s dedicated creative writing centre in Liverpool – a welcoming space where writers of all backgrounds can write, connect and grow together.

The Writer’s Bloc brings together a vibrant community of writers and creative thinkers from across the Liverpool City Region. It’s flexible, friendly and supportive: a place where inspiration and encouragement go hand in hand.

Our next two Writer’s Bloc sessions at Toxteth Library will be:

Friday 10th April – Time To Write 

This session will start with a couple of writing prompts as a warm up and then the rest of the time is yours to work on whatever you like. There will be a chance to share your work at the end of the session if you choose to. 

Friday 24th April – Script Writing with Maurice Bessman 

Maurice is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. He began writing scripts for a BBC Radio Merseyside drama and wrote the drama series DOCTORS and a single drama SING OUR OWN SONG for BBC Radio Four.

His television work includes BROOKSIDE, CASUALTY, HOLBY CITY, ACCUSED, COURTROOM, HOLLYOAKS and a single comedy drama A LITTLE PINCH OF CHILLI.

Both sessions will take place at Toxteth Library, Windsor Street, Liverpool, L8 1XF

Please confirm your attendance at either session by clicking this link and filling in your details: Writer’s Bloc Registration Form  

Tea and coffee will be available at each session.

 

Book Launch: Melete by Jennifer Lee Tsai (Bloodaxe Books)

 

In this first full-length collection, Jennifer Lee Tsai explores family history, intergenerational trauma, love, loss, and belonging through the lens of a second-generation British Chinese identity. Melete weaves together dual cultures and heritages through narratives of memory, migration, and mysticism, spanning Liverpool, China, and Hong Kong. This expansive collection establishes a powerfully distinctive lyric voice in contemporary British poetry.

Jennifer will be joined by fellow Bloodaxe poet and Costa Book of the Year Poetry Award winner Hannah Lowe.

We are delighted to celebrate the launch of this book, which will include readings from Jennifer and Hannah, followed by a conversation with arts curator and host Marie-Anne McQuay.

This event is presented in partnership with the Centre for New and International Writing, University of Liverpool.