Open Eye Gallery is actively rethinking what a gallery can be.
Head along on National Poetry Day to read your own poems or your favourite poem celebrating or reflecting on what ‘The Environment’ means to you.
They’d love to see you on 6 October 2022 – to hear you read and share poetry on environmental and ecological themes.
This event is a Liverpool celebration of National Poetry Day and Liverpool Year of the Spoken Word.
Join Bluecoat for some storytelling from Wild About Story, celebrating books and the natural world.
Fri 19 August, 11am-12pm.
Suitable for under 11s.
Free, drop in.
Part of their summer season of doing, making and playing at the Bluecoat.
Join V&A Award winning author and illustrator Jarvis talking about his latest picture book The Boy with Flowers in his Hair.
What is it like to be an author and illustrator? Head along and find out! You’ll be taking part in a very special draw-along with Jarvis and getting creative in the craft room with a take home activity.
There will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions and have books signed, oh, and did they mention there will be pizza? LOTS of pizza…
Age guidance: 5+
Come ‘round to ours’ for tea with bestselling author Kit de Waal.
Experience a personal and friendly conversation between Kit and Jane Davis – talking about the difficulties and joys of growing up poor and mixed race, and her powerful belief in love and books.
Kit’s debut novel My Name Is Leon became an international bestseller, winner of the Irish Novel prize and was recently adapted for the BBC starring Sir Lenny Henry, Malachi Kirby, Monica Dolan, Olivia Williams and Christopher Eccleston.
They want to create a unique space for foster carers, and those involved in looking after care experienced children, to have tea with Kit, and listen to readings from My Name is Leon and Without Warning and Only Sometimes. There will be the opportunity to ask questions as you tuck into some home-made Scouse and crusty bread, the ultimate comfort food!
Want to attend this event, but have childcare issues? Bring children to the ‘Food for Thought’ event running alongside Tea with Kit de Waal so everyone can enjoy the evening and a bite to eat.
Open Book is a safe space book event/club that encourages people to read more diversely and focusses on own-voice-narratives.
The afternoon event is open to young adults and people of all ages. They are hoping allow those who are older and didn’t see themselves reflected in media to be able to see what exists out there for them now.
The intention of the event is to create a safe community space to discuss books. They aim to advertise diversity within books, helping people to find books that represent them and other marginalised people. The event will promote own-voice-narratives, ensuring that the books displayed are authentically representative of the people they’re written about.
If you are interested in attending the morning event, which includes a library of books and book readings for children, parents and carers) follow the link here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/open-book-childrens-book-club-tickets-391022237037
Join Liverpool Literary Festival for their annual celebration of some of the country’s finest writers.
An unmissable weekend of live events featuring Patrick Gale, Joanna Trollope, Ann Cleeves and Helen Oyeyemi, with many more big names to be revealed over the coming weeks.
Booking opens on 1 August 2022.
For regular updates, visit: www.liverpool.ac.uk/literary-
The Story Box bring tales to life through interactive storytelling and performances for children and their families.
Fri 22 Jul, 1-3pm – under 5s
Fri 5 Aug, 1-3pm – 5-11 year olds
Free, drop in.
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-
A conversation centred in Katherine May’s wonderful meditation Wintering, a Reader bookshelf book for 2022, considering the question of how humans get through harder times.
“Wintering brings about some of the most profound and insightful moments of our human experience, and wisdom resides in those who have wintered.”
― Katherine May, Wintering: The power of rest and retreat in difficult times
Professor Philip Davis introduces the New York Times bestselling author and one of her biggest fans, Melissa Chapple, a post-graduate researcher into autism, reading and empathy at University of Liverpool. The conversation will include discussion of Katherine’s memoir The Electricity of Every Living Thing, her account of learning she was autistic as an adult.
If you have enjoyed Katherine’s work, or like the sound of it, or are part of the autistic community, you’ll find this a deeply engaging event. Katherine May will join via Zoom, Melissa and Philip will be live on stage.
If you have any extra requirements, please let them know by emailing tickets@thereader.org.uk. Free essential companion tickets are available upon request.
Join this Gitanjali shared reading class at The Reader.
The publication of Gitanjali (1912) in English led Rabindranath Tagore to become the first non-European to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.
Whether it is new to you or an old friend, open the book in the company of other readers, and see how different reading is when we share it.