Drop in between 5.30pm and 7.00pm for one-to-one appraisal of scripts, stories, poems and details of publishing opportunities,
performance venues, workshops and courses
with
ALISON DOWN
Screenwriter and poet
BAFTA Rocliffe’s Emerging Children’s Writer.
DAVE WARD
Author and poet
Editor ‘Smoke’ magazine
Nominated for Carnegie Medal
Please book in on arrival.
Each individual session usually lasts 20 minutes.
Writing on the Wall’s Pulp Idol 2025 Grand Final is Here!
For seventeen years the Pulp Idol competition has uncovered the best new novelists the Liverpool City Region has to offer.
Many novelists, including Ariel Khan (Raising Sparks, Bluemoose Books), James Rice (Alice and the Fly, Walk, Hodder and Stoughton), Clare Coombes (Definitions, Bennion Kearny), Philippa Holloway (The Half Life of Snails, Parthian Books), and most recently, Ashleigh Nugent (LOCKS, Picador), have found their first success through Pulp Idol.
This competition unearths the best new novelists in the Liverpool City Region.
After battling it out at twelve Pulp Idol Heats, our finalists go head to head at the Grand Final.
Show your support for these new writers by joining us on Friday 21st February at Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre Studio to hear our twelve finalists battle it out to be crowned Pulp Idol Champion!
Doors open at 7pm.
They have limited wheelchair access, if you are a wheelchair user please contact Jenny@writingonthewall.org.uk
Our 12 Finalists are:
Dawn Reeves – The Billionaire Heartbreaker
Angela Zhu – Untitled
Karen Sephton – Lavender
Eleanor Hall – Fizzlehurst
Stephanie Power – Shakespeareland
Julia Clayton – The Apollo of Trieste
Oliver Back – Fringe
Sarah Hinks – Bound to the Bones
Evita Akomode – Stew
Dan Melling – Untitled
Amber-Page Moss – The Lyverdeep
Sue Hooton – The Mentor
If you have any questions or queries relating to Pulp Idol, please email Jenny Dalton at jenny@writingonthewall.org.uk
Pulp Idol 2025 is funded by Arts Council England.
Drop in between 5.30pm and 7.00pm for one-to-one appraisal of scripts, stories, poems and details of publishing opportunities, performance venues, workshops and courses.
with
ELEANOR REES
Poet
Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Liverpool Hope University
Shortlisted for Forward Prize
DAVE WARD
Author and poet
Editor ‘Smoke’ magazine
Nominated for Carnegie Medal
Please book in on arrival.
Each individual session usually lasts 20 minutes.
For the third year this popular event returns, as featured in The New York Times.
A revival of a Victorian Festive tradition.
Running from 4 – 6 October, the Liverpool Literary Festival is returning for its 9th year. This annual celebration brings together writers, poets, and storytellers for a weekend of engaging discussions, thought-provoking readings, and a shared love of literature in the heart of Liverpool.
This year’s festival features the Sunday Times Number One best-selling author Adele Parks MBE.
Adele Parks, who has sold more than five million UK editions of her 24 novels, translated into 31 different languages, is returning to the festival, following her first visit to Liverpool in 2022.
This year, Adele will be discussing her latest publication First Wife’s Shadow, which was released this summer to critical acclaim, in what promises to be an amusing and insightful discussion with her husband, Jim.
Described by Louise Candlish as a “Devious and dizzying, with twist after twist after twist,” First Wife’s Shadow is a must-read, suspenseful psychological thriller.
This year’s festival also features international best-selling author Sarah Perry who will discuss her latest novel, Enlightenment, local poet and performer Levi Tafari, and Tony Schumacher, writer of the BBC award-winning TV drama The Responder starring Martin Freeman.
Closing the festival will be an exclusive discussion about the acclaimed BBC Drama, Mother’s Day, with critically acclaimed actor Daniel Mays.
Mother’s Day is based on the true events and aftermath of the 1993 IRA bombing in Warrington town centre, on the eve of Mother’s Day 1993. The atrocity took the lives of twelve-year-old Tim Parry and three-year-old Johnathan Ball and injured a further fifty-four people.
Tim’s father, the peace campaigner Colin Parry OBE, BAFTA winning actress Anna Maxwell Martin, actor Daniel Mays and writer Nick Leather will appear at the festival to discuss the challenges of making a tragedy into a powerful drama. Colin will also discuss the book he wrote with Wendy, Tim: An Ordinary Boy, about Tim’s life and their family’s journey.
The festival will host an exclusive screening of the drama followed by a unique discussion between Colin Parry OBE, actress Anna Maxwell Martin, actor Daniel Mays and writer Nick Leather. Daniel and Anna will provide insight into how they approached playing Colin and Wendy’s characters, while Colin himself will share his thoughts on the drama and his continued work in promoting peace.
Festival Director Professor Greg Lynall, Head of English at the University of Liverpool said: “I’m delighted to be welcoming everyone to campus for the Liverpool Literary Festival once again. It’s my second year as Festival Director and we’ve got an incredibly exciting and eclectic line-up of authors for all to enjoy.
MODERN GOTHIC (Fly On The Wall Press, Oct ’24) invites ghoulish readers on a chilling journey through captivating, nightmarish tales; where they will encounter sinister landlords, ethereal housemates and a glass-encased jungle built by an eccentric father. A collection that blurs the lines between dreams and reality, weaving a tapestry of macabre encounters and festering secrets…
We’re delighted to be celebrating the launch of MODERN GOTHIC at the Bluecoat (School Lane, L1 3BX) on Wednesday, 23rd October at 6pm with contributing author Lauren Archer and friend of the shop / pro-goth Alyssa Lloyd. Lauren is a writer of the gothic, surreal and strange based in Liverpool, UK. Her short story ‘Out of Water’ was published by Crow and Cross Keys literary journal. In 2022, her short story ‘The Allotment’ was longlisted for the Mslexia Short Story Prize. Alyssa hosts Book Club in the Pub and – along with Lauren – the small-press focused inclusive book club Feminist Fiction.
We hope you can join us for this seasonally-appropriate spookfest where Lauren and Alyssa will dive deeply into what constitutes modern gothic literature…
The Writing Advice Desk is back!
The Windows Project Writing Advice Desk service is returning to the Liverpool Central Library to offer help for any and all writers!
The Advice Desk will be conducted on the FIRST WEDNESDAY of every month
September’s writing advice desk will be run by Dave Ward and Alison Down from The Windows Project
For more details, contact them at windowsproject@btinternet.com or 07710644325.
For the fourth session of the Writer’s Bloc, Writing on the Wall is delighted to welcome Ginni Manning, a playwright, writer, theatre maker and facilitator.
This session will focus on the various kinds of opportunities available to you as a writer. Ginni will be talking to you about seeking opportunity, taking you through some writing exercises and giving you a chance to practice free writing.
This session is about seeking opportunities through ideas, reflection and regular writing practice; for learning and developing a community, and for getting your work out there through competitions, online opportunities, organisations and social media.
The Writer’s Bloc –offers fortnightly free sessions with professional writers, and representatives from educational and career organisations to develop your skills and discover new opportunities.
Please do not turn up to a Writer’s Bloc session without receiving a confirmation from us first. Registering for the Writer’s Bloc does not guarantee acceptance onto the next session as numbers are limited. If you turn up on the day without having received a confirmation we won’t be able to allow entry.
If you have any queries please email us at write2work@writingonthewall.org.uk.
Step into the wilderness this summer for tales of the woodland weird, unholy rites and ancient places of cosmic power.
Following two years of sold-out performances of Ghost Stories for Christmas (featured in the New York Times), ArtsGroupie CIC continue to revive the storytelling tradition with a summer solstice slant, performed by local authors John Maguire and David Griffiths at performance gardens across the city.
“Each year we have so much fun writing and performing Ghost Stories for Christmas that we wanted to keep that momentum during the year. It has given us a reason to explore different facets of horror fiction. For this event, we’re taking inspiration from British classics such as The Wicker Man and the nightmare fuel of 70’s kids’ TV Children of the Stones to keep your senses heightened before the nights grow dark again. After all, those rituals around ancient stones and strange songs sung on the village green might just be keeping at bay the horrors that walk in broad daylight. Remember, the shadows might not be as long in the summer, but all that means is…they’re right behind you!” David Griffiths, Writer and Director
Thingwall Community Centre, Wavertree Garden Suburb
Tuesday 11th June at 7pm
Liverpool,
L15 7JX
Tickets
Incredible Edible Knowsley, Court Hey Park
Friday 14th June at 5pm and 7pm
Liverpool,
L16 2LR
Tickets
METAL Culture
Tuesday 18th June at 4pm & 6pm
Metal Culture,
Liverpool,
L7 6ND
Tickets
Shakespeare North Playhouse
Wednesday 19th June at 6:30pm
Prospero Place,
Prescot,
L34 3AB
Tickets
ArtsGroupie CIC
ArtsGroupie CIC is a Liverpool based community interest company that is promoting and providing access to the arts in the North West and beyond. They achieve this through developing their own touring theatre and music productions, and by facilitating educational workshops for both adults and children in creative writing and spoken word. We use our walking tours to help fund our theatre productions and community outreach work. Artsgroupie took their highly acclaimed production of Kitty: Queen of the Washhouse in 2023 on a mini tour and played Shakespeare North Playhouse and London’s Kings Head, Islington. The production has now been staged 32 times.
David Griffiths
David Griffiths is a playwright, director, screenwriter and author from Liverpool. His plays have been staged at fringe festivals in Edinburgh, Buxton and Camden. He recently directed an adaption of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four (“a powerful production” North West End) and is touring his adaption of Charles Dickens’ The Signalman for ArtsGroupie CIC across the north west (“suspenseful” North West End). His latest stageplay, “The Hammer and Helena” will be produced by ArtsGroupie CIC in October 2024.
John Maguire
John Maguire is a playwright, historic walking-tours operator, community activist and Creative Director of ArtsGroupie CIC. John has had nine of my plays staged professionally, including KITTY: Queen of the Washhouse, a play that revisited the life of public washhouse pioneer Catherine Wilkinson. He has written 235 articles for online international magazine Ten Million Hardbacks 10mh.net and published two children’s books, Sophie and the Spider and The Liver Bird. John’s most recent play focuses on Liverpudlian Icon, William Roscoe, A Portrait of William Roscoe, exploring his life in the arts and political activism.
The fifth Liver Bards poetry event of this year is titled ‘Unending Love’. It is coming to Ma Boyle’s in Liverpool on Tuesday 7th May 2024.
May 7th 1861 marks the birthday of Rabindranath Tagore. He was an Indian poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter during the age of Bengal Renaissance. In 1913, he became the first non-European and the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore’s poetic songs are spiritual and mercurial. His elegant prose and magical poetry were widely popular in the Indian subcontinent. He was a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and was referred to as ‘The Bard of Bengal’.
Tagore wrote many poems, including ‘Unending Love’. Below is its first of four stanzas:
Unending Love
I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times…
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
Performing bards and audience will come together downstairs in Ma Boyle’s Rum and Rumour Bar.
Come speak your truth and listen to others speak theirs.
Please choose to adopt, adapt or ignore the theme.
Please contact me (Ali) if you know you would like a poetry slot and will be there (5 minutes maximum in total – shorter is fine. Please stick to the time).
There may be the opportunity for poets to sign up on the night at the venue from 7.30pm if all the spots are not filled.
Jake Archer is due to start the music from sometime after 7.
The poeteering begins at 8.
This will be my 90th Liver Bards as host.
Thank you to the 102 bards who’ve performed thus far this year in our four previous events.