Tickets are on sale for Birmingham’s 18th Literature Festival. Over 80 writers, performers, historians, illustrators and orators host nearly 50 interviews, performances, debates and workshops in central Birmingham over 11 days this October, from 6th-16th.
This year the festival is hosting a Europe special, involving writers from more than 10 different European countries, discussing how their work crosses and connects cultures.
Mostly taking place on Saturday 8th October, the Europe special includes an interview with Walter Iuzzolino of Channel 4’s Walter Presents, who collects wildly popular high-quality foreign dramas.
Hans Rosenfeldt, writer of The Bridge, bilingual Swedish/Danish drama meets with with Ed Thomas, the writer/creator of Welsh/English drama Hinterland.
The writers come from countries including Ukraine, Sweden, Spain, Germany and Turkey, including political commentators and linguists.
- Jonas Hassen Khemiri one of the most important Swedish writers of his generation in Sweden discusses pushing boundaries with Elif Shafak, award-winning novelist and the most widely-read woman writer in Turkey. She’s been described as “one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Turkish and world literature”.
- We bring together Diego Marani, a celebrated Italian novelist, translator and journalist and German essayist and novelist Frank Witzel. Marani is the inventor of the mock language Europanto and is a Senior Linguist for the European Union in Brussels. Witzel won the German Book Prize in 2015, with his 99 chapter epic The Invention of the Red Army Faction by a Manic Depressive Teenager in the Summer of 1969.
- French designer Philippine Hamen meets with David Lodge. Having been inspired by David Lodge’s short story The Man Who Wouldn’t Get Up, she created the ‘lounger desk’, a hybrid piece of furniture. The event includes a private viewing at Ikon Gallery.
Those interested in more than one event can purchase a Euro Pass which covers all eight events: http://www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org/euro-pass/
For tickets and full details of all events, see www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org.
Birmingham Literature Festival is made possible through sponsorship from (in alphabetical order): Birmingham City University; Dains Accountants; Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, Newman University; University of Birmingham; Wolverhampton University. We also gratefully acknowledge the support of Festivals Birmingham and the Library of Birmingham.
It is a project of Writing West Midlands, which is supported by Arts Council England.
Writing West Midlands is the literature development agency for the West Midlands, supporting creative writers and creative writing. It offers support to help writers establish their writing careers. It supports young writers as they develop their interest in creative writing. It runs festivals and events, including the Birmingham Literature Festival and the annual national writing conference, The Writers’ Toolkit. It exists to champion the West Midlands region as a great place to be a writer.