Gravity festival returns with more conversations that matter
Authors Lissa Evans, Katherine May, Kit de Waal and Tony Schumacher headline exciting weekend of events hosted from Liverpool’s Calderstones Park, 29 September – 2 October.
Gravity is a festival for our times that fuses great books and novels with intimate conversations about life’s ups and downs.
This year’s programme – which takes place online and in person – includes talks from guest speakers and wellbeing activities such as poetry walks, yoga and Shared Reading.
Highlights include:
BBC1 ‘The Responder’ writer, Liverpool-born Tony Schumacher in conversation about the personal experiences that inspired the hit show.
Hannah Chukwu, series editor of Penguin’s Black Britain: Writing Black, will be curating one day of yet to be announced events with a panel of brilliant black writers.
Author of New York Times bestseller, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times Katherine May in conversation with researcher of autism and literature Melissa Chapple and Emeritus Professor of Literature and Psychology at the University of Liverpool, Philip Davis (Reading for Life).
Journalist Tomiwa Owalade and founder and director of The Reader, Jane Davis, share their admiration for the clear sightedness and the sometimes-hard truths found in the essays of American writer James Baldwin.
BAFTA-winning television producer, author of novels for both adults and children, Lissa Evans joins Bootle-born screenwriter and author Frank Cottrell-Boyce for a chat on children’s books, imagination, and Lissa’s award-winning novel Wed Wabbit.
Kit de Waal author of international best seller and winner of the Irish Novel prize My Name Is Leon talking about the difficulties and joys of growing up poor and mixed race, and her powerful belief in love and books.
A draw-along with V&A Award winning author and illustrator Jarvis as they talk about his latest picture book The Boy with Flowers in his Hair.
Roosevelt Montas, author of Rescuing Socrates, talks to Neil Atkinson (Anfield Wrap) and Pranav Sood about how, as a Dominican-born teenager in Queens, NY, great books changed his life.
Tickets are on sale here: www.thereader.org.uk/get-