Event type: Literature

June Writing Advice Desk

The Windows Project 

WRITING ADVICE DESK

 

WEDNESDAY 4th JUNE  at Liverpool Central LibraryWilliam Brown Street L3 8EW

 

Drop in between 5.30pm and 7.00pmfor one-to-one appraisal of scripts, stories, poemsand details of publishing opportunities, performance venues, workshops and courses

 

withALISON DOWN Screenwriter and poetBAFTA Rocliffe’s Emerging Children’s Writer.

 

DAVE WARDAuthor and poetEditor ‘Smoke’ magazineNominated for Carnegie Medal

 

Please book in on arrival.  Each individual session usually lasts 20 minutes.

Liverpool Book Market

 

The legendary Liverpool Book Market returns to the Garden Room in The Bluecoat. Browse a fantastic selection of books from a range of local booksellers, including ‘still Out-of-Print’ of Smithdown Road, and the ‘Bolshie Bargain Bookstall’. Bargains, rarities and a cornucopia of subjects for the literary mind!

Enquiries: ‘still Out-of-Print’ Antiquarian and Secondhand Bookshop 07440 501099

Look out for future dates: Fri 18th & Sat 19th July; Fri 29th & Sat 30th August

 

 

Recurring events in Liverpool

Liverpool is a city full of Irish culture. There is always something happening that you join in with. Below is a lit of regular and recurring activities, delivered by our that you can pick up at any time.
Liverpool Irish Centre
The Liverpool Irish Centre runs a shop full of Irish produce, open 7-days a week. It receives Irish food deliveries fortnightly on a Wednesday/Thursday. The main bar hours are Fri and Sat, 2pm-midnight and Sun, 12.30pm-9pm, with live music 4/5pm. Follow them online to stay up to date with events. The venue is a hireable space and can be booked for parties or functions. The recurring programme looks like this:

Monday

Gardening class,10am, The Shed
Comhaltas, 6.30pm

Tuesday

Sequence dancing, 1pm
Liverpool Irish Choir, 6.30pm

Wednesday

JJ’s lunch club, 1pm
Yoga, 6pm
Irish language, 6-8pm
The Lowlands, 7pm
Liverpool Irish Fluteband, 7.30pm

Thursday

Tea dance/Bingo, 1pm
Irish language, 6pm
Bolger-Cunningham Irish dance, 6.30pm
Liverpool Irish Rovers social run, 6.30pm

Friday

25 cards, 9pm

Saturday

Bolger-Cunningham Irish dance, 10am
Tin whistle class, 10.30am, The Shed.

In addition, Liverpool Irish Rovers run regularly through the week. Contact them directly to join. The Centre runs Supper Céilí on the last Wednesday of every month at 8.30pm and hosts a monthly seisiún on the third Sunday of every month.
Comhaltas
Running classes regularly at the Liverpool Irish Centre, Comhaltas is your go to organisation for anything relating to Irish music. See day listing above for class times.
Conradh Na Gaeilge Learpholl
Irish language is on the rise again, not least because of the astounding work done at community level by groups such as Conradh Na Gaeilge Learpholl. Based at Liverpool Irish Centre, there are all sorts of lessons to join in with. Look at the day lists above for details of Wed/Thurs clubs. They also host Lon Gaeilge sessions at 12.30pm on the first Friday of every month at The Railway on Tithebarn Street. Guests to this are invited to bring 10 new words per session to use in conversation. Conradh Na Gaeilge Learpholl are the lead organisers of the annual Tony Birtill memorial lecture and scholarship.
Irish Community Care Merseyside
With 60-years of Irish community championing, Irish Community Care Merseyside is a first port of call for those needing to access welfares services. It undertakes year-round work to improve life-chances and build communities.
Liverpool Irish Famine Trail
Conserved and updated by Liverpool Irish Festival, the Liverpool Irish Famine Trail has an app and self-guided maps that you can take yourself through. There ar recurring walks taking place across the year – see our events page using the Events menu above, or this link.
The Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool
An academic centre of excellence with a year round programme of events, talks, activities and archives to share. Sign up for their events mailings.

An Evening with Irvine Welsh

 

 

Irvine Welsh joins the team to launch his latest novel, Men In Love, the immediate sequel to Trainspotting, continuing the stories of Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie!

Set in the late 1980s and early ’90s against the backdrop of rave culture, Men In Love follows the iconic Trainspotting crew through the dying days of Thatcher’s Britain as they do what they can to feel alive, all while asking themselves whether falling in love is the answer to their problems, or just another futile quest?

Irvine will be in conversation with Peter Hooton, lead singer of The Farm, to discuss returning to the boys, filling in this gap in their stories, and his own memories of Edinburgh in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as signing copies of Men In Love.

 

 

April Writing Advice Desk

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.

Pulp Idol 2025 Grand Final

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.

January Writing Advice Desk

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.

Liverpool Literary Festival 2024

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.

Dead Ink Books: Modern Gothic launch w...

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…

September Writing Advice Desk

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.