Lowdham Book Festival - June 18-29

Lowdham Book Festival has announced the programme for its fourteenth summer book festival

Guest stars include Simon Mayo, leading crime writer Mark Billingham, novelist Deborah Moggach and musician Hazel O'Connor

Specialist events include a Victorian day, a Caribbean evening – and a cricket match where national authors take on a local team!

Lowdham Book Festival returns for its fourteenth year with its traditional combination of nationally and locally known writers, novelists and non-fiction authors, general, quirky, sporting and specialist and events for adults and children. The festival starts on Tuesday June 18^th and ends with a big day of free events, a children's programme and a large bookfair on Saturday 29th June

Ross Bradshaw, joint organiser of the Lowdham Book Festival, said “After fourteen years we have a good idea what our audience wants... national names, interesting subjects, the obvious and the quirky.” Among the more unusual events in the programme are a guided walk round Nottingham General Cemetery to visit the graves of long-dead Nottinghamshire authors, a talk on the lives of women in the Sudan and a discussion of men in mid-life. And a cricket match!

Several of the days are themed, with a say about music writing and a day about Victorian history.

Ross Bradshaw added “It's surprising how many national figures turn out to have Nottinghamshire connections, and they often want to return. This year this includes Simon Mayo, one of Britain's best loved radio presenters, who started his career at Radio Nottingham.”

The full Lowdham Book Festival programme is available on www.lowdhambookfestival.co.uk, and printed programmes are available from Nottingham Tourist Information, local arts venues and The Bookcase in Lowdham.

For further information please contact Jane Streeter on 0115 9664143 or Ross Bradshaw on 0115 9693597.

Sons and Lovers - Centenary talk

Sons and Lovers - 100 years on

To celebrate the enduring appeal of Lawrence’s most autobiographical novel, The University of Nottingham’s respected Lawrence scholar Professor Neil Roberts - an Honorary Professor in the University’s School of English and Emeritus Professor at The University of Sheffield - will provide a fresh perspective on Sons and Lovers as it reaches its centenary. This free to attend public lecture is entitled Sons and Lovers and Jessie Chambers: Art and Integrity. 

Dr Andrew Harrison, Director of the University’s DH Lawrence Research Centre in the School of English, said: “It is wholly fitting that there should be a centenary celebration of Sons and Lovers at the University where he studied, in the very area which the novel recreates in such loving detail. We are delighted to welcome Professor Roberts as our guest speaker and we hope that members of the local community, and anyone interested in Lawrence, will join us on the evening”.

Although it made Lawrence relatively little money Sons and Lovers was generally well-received by reviewers and the reading public alike. A review in the London Standard the day after its publication suggested that this was the novel in which Lawrence had come to ‘full maturity as a writer’.

The novel contains a detailed and sustained description of his upbringing and early life in the Nottinghamshire village of Eastwood. While working on it Lawrence followed the advice of his first literary mentor Ford Madox Hueffer, who encouraged him to write about working-class life from his unique position‘inside’ the community. Edward Garnett later wrote that the novel was the only one ‘of any breadth of vision in contemporary English fiction that lifts working-class life out of middle-class hands, and restores it to its native atmosphere of hard veracity.’

One of the novel’s pioneering, but still controversial, aspects is its portrayal of the potentially damaging effects of maternal love and its influence on a man’s ability to form mature sexual relationships. The enduring importance of the issues raised in the novel underwrites its continuing appeal for academics and general readers around the world.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday 29 May – 100 years to the day when it was first published in England by Duckworth - at 7pm in the Sir Clive Granger Building, Room A48 on University Park campus. The lecture, and following wine reception, are open to the public but those wishing to attend are asked to book online at www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/intranet/rsvp.htmlor by contacting Tracy-Ann Stead on 0115 951 5906.

 

 

 

Stories in Sandstone - Nottingham based short stories

Stories in Sandstone – a Nottingham Anthology

A new collection of Nottingham based short stories by members of the Notts Writers' Group, a gathering of local writers that meet at the Malt Cross on a Monday. The formal launch will be at the Guitar Bar, Hotel Deux, Nottingham on May 30th.

Profits from sales will be donated to the Nottingham Women’s Centre.

The short story anthology is available in paperback and ebook format.

Published by http://celandor.co.uk/

Ophelia's Sistas - Beeston Library

Beeston Poets

Ophelia's Sistas, Friday May 24th 2013, 7.30pm

Featuring Char March
and Valerie Laws

Tickets £7.50, £5.50 concessions

Last July acclaimed poets Char March and Valerie Laws wowed the audience at Southwell Library Poetry Festival. It is impossible to describe how good it was to those who missed it, so now here’s another chance to hear these two very different voices. Char March’s The Thousand Natural Shocks and Valerie Laws’ All that Lives come together and take their audiences on an exploration of pathology, wild sex, dementia, lost pigeons, flirting at funerals, dogs in space, insanity – and more! Their poetry is deeply moving and side-splittingly funny. Sheelagh Gallagher, Nottinghamshire’s Literature and Reading Development Officer, says, ‘It was more like a firework display than a collaboration!’

Tickets

AT Beeston Library, Foster Avenue, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 1AW.

International Byron Festival, June 27 - July 7

Gedling Book Festival - History Day, July 12

Free to attend. A day of talks and activities for all.

Guest Speakers on the History Day include the crime writer Karen Maitland and the historical novelist Helen Hollick.

PLUS Ian Douglas.

For information CLICK HERE.

 

 

Gedling Book Festival - Children's Day, July 13

Free to attend. A day of talks and activities for all.

Guest Speakers on the Children's Day include the children's writers Michael Cox and Catherine H Cooper. Workshops from Pete Davis and Steve Bowkett.

PLUS Alison Moore

and live music.

For information CLICK HERE.

Gedling Book Festival - Crime Day, July 14

Free to attend. A day of talks and activities for all.

Guest Speakers on the Crime Day include the crime writers Stephen Booth and David Bell

PLUS Nicola Monaghan

and much more. 

For information CLICK HERE.

Book Launch

The Memory of Bridges: A book launch by local author Roberta Dewa

 

Saturday 18th May 11.00 a.m Meadows Library

 

A memoir of a personal history and a return to the village landscape of childhood. Roberta will be speaking about the book, her use of Wilford and the Meadows as a setting and looking at the way in which the area has changed over the last 50 years.

Light refreshments provided.

 

A Free Event

Alison Moore, Waterstone's

A Glass of Bubbly and a Brilliant New Book: An Evening With

Alison Moore

The Pre-War House and Other Stories

WATERSTONE'S NOTTINGHAM BRIDLE
Wednesday, 15 May 2013, 7:00PM
£5/£3 for loyalty cardholders

Join us for a glass of bubbly as we celebrate the release of 'The Pre-War House and Other Stories' the debut collection from Alison Moore, whose first novel, The Lighthouse, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The stories collected here range from her first published short story to new and recently published work. Alison will be discussing her work followed by a signing.

Further details:

0843 290 8525

Bold Strokes Book Festival

4th Annual Bold Strokes Book Festival  

June 8th-9th

Join eleven LGBTQ authors at Nottingham Waterstone’s.

Starting Saturday afternoon, there’ll be readings, discussions, question and answer sessions, and signings. On the Saturday night at Propaganda in the Lace Market will be the popular meet and mingle where you can have a drink and chat with the authors.

Sunday will see the panel, sponsored by Starbucks, where you can hear what the authors have to say about their experiences in publishing.

Plus, for the first time, pitch your own novel to a Bold Strokes editor during the publishing Q&A on the Sunday. Any person writing novel length LGBTQ fiction is welcome to pitch, which is a rare opportunity indeed!

Sunday afternoon: lunch at the New Foresters for a last afternoon of books and giveaways!

Don’t miss this opportunity to see and hear talented LGBTQ authors from one of the world’s most diverse publishing houses. Pitch your own novel, chat with people in the industry, and get your hands on some of the best queer fiction on the market today!

Below is the schedule. And remember, if you want to pitch your novel to a BSB editor, sign up at bsbediting@gmail.com. You’ll get a ten minute time slot to tell us about your book. It’s a fantastic opportunity–don’t miss out!

Saturday, June 8^th

1:00pm

Panel 1: Romantic Interludes.

I. Beacham, Lesley Davis, Russ Gregory and Amy Dunne talk romance

Coffee Chat: Let’s Talk About Sex.

Justine Saracen, Crin Claxton and Russ Gregory talk about the different ways of writing sex.

Panel 2: Location, Location, Location. Andrea Bramhall, Cari Hunter and Rebecca S. Buck talk about the importance of setting.

Panel 3: Crossing Boundaries.

Justine Saracen, Crin Claxton, Jane Fletcher and Gill McKnight talk about writing beyond what we know.

5:00pm: Author-Reader After-Party at Propaganda Bar in the Lace Market. Buy books, buy beer, chat up an author!

Sunday, June 9^th

(Coffee and nibbles provided by Starbucks!)

10:00am: Pitch Your Novel! Sign up for your ten minute pitch slot at bsbediting@gmail.com

11:00

Coffee Chat: Author on Author. Justine Saracen, I. Beacham, Amy Dunne and Russ Gregory get personal asking one another questions.

Panel 1: Publishing Panel. Authors and Editors Answer Your Questions about the Publishing Process. We’ll discuss what you need to do to submit and provide guidelines for submitting to Bold Strokes.

Panel 2: Coming Your Way. Authors read sneak peeks from their forthcoming novels.

2:00pm: Free author/reader lunch provided by The New Foresters Pub. Win a trip to Deepdale, courtesy of Andrea Bramhall! Check out Andrea’s website for details. Plus lots of other giveaways!