Live Literature 2021

Last year’s virtual events brought some of the most exciting new literary names to Bolton and beyond, including novelist and Bolton graduate Derek Owusu’s “fresh and powerful debut” (The Guardian) and a memorable live performance of a new play from Liverpool Everyman Young Playwright, Mostyn Jones. The acclaimed American poet Shane McCrae also treated us to a powerful reading alongside recent Bolton doctoral graduate Anne Caldwell.

For the first event of this new season on Tuesday 5th October, author Sean Gregory will join us at Bolton Central Library to read from his new novel, Three Graves (Bluemoose Books). Gregory will also talk to Creative Writing lecturer Valerie O’Riordan about this new work, which has been described by Benjamin Myers as “a bold, gripping and audacious debut” exploring the life of Anthony Burgess.

On Tuesday 9th November we will be treated to two exciting new contemporary voices, John Challis and Rebecca Perry, both published by celebrated Northern poetry press Bloodaxe Books. Challis’s debut The Resurrectionists has already been praised by Sean O’Brien as “a superb first collection” with a “tender regard for ordinary life in its embrace of both the political and the metaphysical”.

Rebecca Perry’s second collection of poems Stone Fruit has been described by the Times Literary Supplement as “an interrogation of the limits of the body”, an eagerly anticipated follow-up to her debut Beauty/Beauty, shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize.

The season concludes on Tuesday 7th December with a live performance of the scriptwriting of recent Bolton graduate, Nathaniel Bennett. Going Missing is the tale of two brothers surviving alone in a world where everyone has seemingly disappeared. An excerpt from this distinctive play will be presented, and the audience will also gain insight into the scriptwriting process.

Everyone is welcome to join us at Bolton Central Library on Tuesday 5th October at 6pm, for what promises to be a fantastic night of Live Literature to kick-off the season. Entry is free.

Tuesday 5th October, 6pm - 7.30pm: Live Literature @ Bolton Central Library

Three Graves: prose and script writer Sean Gregory reads from his new novel

Tuesday 9th November, 6pm - 7.30pm: Live Literature @ Bolton Central Library

The Resurrectionists and Stone Fruit: poets John Challis and Rebecca Perry read from their new collections

6 – 7:30pm @ Bolton Central Library, Le Mans Crescent, BL1 1SE.

Tuesday 7th December, 6pm - 7.30pm: Live Literature @ Bolton Central Library

Going Missing: a script-in-hand performance of an extract from a new play by UoB graduate Nathaniel Bennett