LitfestThe 37th Lancaster Literature FestivalThursday 17 - Sunday 20 March

2016

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Hello and welcome to the 2016 Lancaster Literature Festival

In these seemingly-never-ending, challenging times I am genuinely delighted that we are able, once again, to bring you a feast of literary conversations and readings. We present to you a festival that celebrates not only the well-known and established practitioners of the literary arts, but the less-familiar and / or emerging writers.

We also bring a tinge of controversy to spice up the evenings’ entertainments. Andrew M. Hurley and Karen Lloyd open our festival. Both have, in one way or another, been influenced by our wonderful library services and will talk about that in our opening event.

On Friday we present a ‘first’ for Litfest – an evening of “Alternate Realities” – although even choosing that title caused no small amount of discussion. Join us for an evening of readings and debate by local and national writers in the field.

Our poetry offering focuses on the smaller presses. We are proud to present the talents represented by the Beautiful Dragons Collaboration, the Wayleave Press (featuring Litfest favourite Jane Routh) and the Emma Press.

We close with a multi-media story-telling event in the library. Jacqueline Harris presents her vivid and memorable tales in a collaborative feast that includes sculpture and projection - not to be missed.

We hope that you will enjoy our offerings. If you do then perhaps you might consider volunteering for Litfest to ensure that we can continue to provide excellent literature to our local community for many years to come.

Have fun.

Jacqueline Greaves

Chair, Litfest Board of Trustees.

Thursday 17th March 7.30pm

Inspiring Stories Authors Andrew M. Hurley and Karen Lloyd discuss how the landscape and libraries of Lancashire have influenced their literature.

Karen Lloyd is a writer of creative non-fiction and poetry based in Kendal. She is a contributor to The Guardian and the Caught by the River blog, as well as to a number of literary journals, Scottish Island Explorer, Scotland Outdoor and other magazines.

‘The Gathering Tide: A Journey Around the Edgelands of Morecambe Bay’ is her first book, encompassing nature writing and wildlife, ancient and modern history and human-interest stories including the cockling disaster.

Andrew Michael Hurley explores the dark landscapes of British Gothic fiction and reveals some of the literary and geographical influences that shaped his novel, ‘The Loney’.

First published by Tartarus Press as a limited edition hardback and then by John Murray, Andrew Michael Hurley’s debut novel, ‘The Loney’, was shortlisted for the inaugural James Herbert Award in 2014 and won the Costa First Novel award in 2015. Andrew is also a creative writing tutor and lives and works in Preston.

Venue: The Auditorium @ The Storey Tickets: £10 / £8 Booking: www.litfest.org and Lancaster Visitor Information Centre 01524 582394

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Friday 18th March 7.15pm - 8.15pm

Panel discussion – ‘Genre Bending’Our Alternate Realities writers discuss the understanding of terms in the science fiction genre by different audiences. What do the terms ‘SciFi’ and ‘Science Fiction’ mean - to writers, readers and viewers? What do we understand by the terms ‘Fantasy’ or ‘Speculative Fiction’? What other titles or categories are applied to alternative writing?

Bring your questions, understanding and opinions - and join in the discussion!

Friday 18th March 6pm - 7pm

J.S. Collyer and Eddie RobsonJ. S. Collyer is a science fiction writer from Lancaster. She stayed in the city after completing an MA in creative writing in 2008 at Lancaster University. Her first novel, ‘Zero’, was released by

Dagda Publishing in 2014 and has been described as ‘James Bond meets Firefly’. The sequel, ‘Haven’, was released in October 2015.

Eddie Robson published his first novel, ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, in 2015. He also writes for radio and TV: he created and wrote the sitcom ‘Welcome To Our Village’, ‘Please Invade Carefully’ (BBC

Radio 4, 2012-14) and has written episodes of ‘Hollyoaks’ (Channel 4, 2014-15) and ‘Sarah & Duck’ (CBeebies, 2015-16), sketches for ‘Mitchell and Webb’ and ten episodes of Radio 4 Extra’s ‘Doctor Who’ series (2007-13). His other work includes a family play, ‘Beauty And The Beast’ (The Dukes Lancaster, 2015-16), comic strips for ‘Marvel Comics’ and ‘2000AD’ and several non-fiction books.

Eddie will be reading from ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’.

Jenny and Eddie will take questions afterwards.

An Evening of Alternate Realities

Venue: The Music Room @ The Storey Tickets: MULTIBUY! £10 / £8 per event or 20% off if you book all three Booking: www.litfest.org and Lancaster Visitor Information Centre 01524 582394

Justina Robson was born in Yorkshire, England in 1968. After completing school she dropped out of Art College, then studied Philosophy and Linguistics at York University. She sold her first novel

in 1999 which also won the 2000 amazon.co.uk Writers’ Bursary Award.

She has also been a student (1992) and a teacher (2002, 2006) at The Arvon Foundation, in the UK, (a centre for the development and promotion of all kinds of creative writing). She was a student at Clarion West, the US bootcamp for SF and Fantasy writers, in 1996.

Her books have been variously shortlisted: for The British Science Fiction Best Novel Award, including the 2015 for her latest novel ‘Glorious Angels’, for the Arthur C Clarke Award, the Philip K Dick Award and the John W Campbell Award. An anthology of her short fiction, ‘Heliotrope’, was published in 2012. In 2004 Justina was a judge for the Arthur C Clarke Award on behalf of The Science Fiction Foundation.

Her novels and stories range widely over SF and Fantasy, often in combination and often featuring AIs and machines who aren’t exactly what they seem. She is the proud author of ‘The Covenant of Primus’ (2013) - the authorised history and ‘bible’ of The Transformers.

She lives in t’North of England with her partner, three children, a cat and a dog.

Dutch writer Saskia Goldschmidt worked as both a youth theatre producer and drama teacher before she wrote an autobiographical account of growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust. ‘The

Hormone Factory’, which is loosely inspired by the story of the hormone manufacturer Organon, beginning shortly before WW2, is her first novel. It is set in a world in which drug testing and manufacture was as yet unregulated, and there was little or no workplace legislation protecting employees. The book was an instant success in the Netherlands, where it was also broadcast as a 12-part radio drama, and has been published in Germany, France, South Africa, Israel and the United States. Saskia is visiting to celebrate the launch of the UK edition this week.

Adrian Tchaikovsky was born in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire before heading off to Reading to study psychology and zoology. He subsequently ended up in law and has worked as a legal executive in both

Reading and Leeds, where he now lives. Married, he is a keen live role-player and has trained in stage-fighting and historical combat.

Adrian is the author of the acclaimed 10-book ‘Shadows of the Apt’ series starting with ‘Empire in Black and Gold’ published by Tor UK. His other works for Tor UK include standalone novels ‘Guns of the Dawn’ and ‘Children of Time’ and the new series ‘Echoes of the Fall’ starting with ‘The Tiger and the Wolf ’. He has also written numerous short stories and been shortlisted for the David Gemmell Legend Award and the British Fantasy Award.

Adrian will read a short story from ‘Looking Landwards’, an anthology of Science Fiction farming stories - looking at the devastating results of bad choices in corporate farming.

Thursday 18th March 8.30pm - 9.30pm

‘Good Science’ - Saskia Goldschmidt, Adrian Tchaikovsky & Justina Robson

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Saturday 19th March 2pm - 3pm

My Dear Watson, The Very Elements in Poetry by Beautiful Dragons Collaborations

Until recently there were 118 elements in the periodic table. Last year, each of them fizzed up its very own poem. From its very own poet. Recent events in the world of science have demanded a few more are added, and they will be for Litfest’s Poetry Day!

The poets hail from all over the world and Lancashire*. Aged from 18 to 83** their poems will make jaws drop (off), hair stand on end (permanently) and tender bits glow in the dark (glimmeringly).

‘My Dear Watson’ is the fourth anthology from Beautiful Dragons, the entirely collaborative poetry press. The biggest venture so far from a bunch of stanza-mongers with collections of experience and none. Who are best friends and total strangers.

Come and see them sizzle at the Lancaster launch of ‘My Dear Watson’. Who knows what will happen when they actually meet…

*not quite true

**spot on

The ‘My Dear Watson’ poets include: Rebecca Bilkau, Gill Lambert, Alex Josephy, Mark Connors, Angela Topping, Polly Atkin, Rhiannon Hooson, Ron Scowcroft, Roger Allen, Mollie Baxter, Jo Reardon, Barbara Hickson and Joanna Sedgwick.

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Venue: The Sanctuary @ Lancaster Library Tickets: MULTIBUY! £10 / £8 per event or 20% off if you book all three Booking: www.litfest.org and Lancaster Visitor Information Centre 01524 582394

A Day of Poetry

Saturday 19th March 4pm - 5pm

Three Wayleave PoetsWayleave Press is a small independent publisher of quality poetry pamphlets. Based in Lancaster, it was founded in 2014 by Mike Barlow, with the intention of publishing attractive editions of excellent poetry, specialising in thematically cohesive collections or first pamphlets by talented poets. So far Wayleave has produced 12 pamphlets including work by poets with regional and national reputations. During this event Mike Barlow will introduce three poets who will read from their Wayleave pamphlets as well as their wider work:

Lynda Plater lives in Lincolnshire, having returned there in the 1990’s from Galloway. Her return home and her travels abroad influence her writing. Her pamphlet ‘Three Seasons for Burning’,

just published in January this year, is her debut collection. Her distinctive rhythms and language have a songlike quality, part homage, part celebration.

Ulverston’s Mark Carson, in his pamphlet ‘Hove-to is a State of Mind’, draws on Irish roots, a career as an ocean engineer and time spent in Africa. His poems vividly evoke particular experiences: a cross-

cultural encounter camping in the bush, a night-time call-out on a research vessel at sea, a chance encounter between youth and beauty in the west of Ireland, all vividly realised for reader or listener.

Jane Routh lives in rural north Lancashire. Her recent prose publication, ‘Falling into Place’, celebrates work, wildlife and weather in the north west of England. The poems in her pamphlet ‘The White

Silence’ focus, with ‘sustained, accessible and accomplished lyricism’ on Sir John Franklin’s 1845 naval expedition to find the ‘North West Passage’ through Arctic ice.

Saturday 19th March 5.30pm - 6.30pm

Poets from the Emma PressEmma Press poets (and Lancaster University alumni) Camille Ralphs and James Trevelyan read from their new pamphlets.

Camille Ralphs will read from ‘Malkin’, her collection of poems about the Pendle witch trials of 1612, and James Trevelyan will read from ‘DISSOLVE to: L.A.’, his collection of poems in the voices of minor characters from action films of the 1980s-90s.

The event will be introduced by publisher Emma Wright, and the readings will be followed by a Q&A and a book-signing.

Camille Ralphs started in Stoke, and has studied in Lancaster, Cambridge and now Oxford. She is a senior poetry editor at The Missing Slate, and was 2014’s Cambridge editor-in-chief of The Mays

Anthology. Some of her earlier writing can be found in Earth-Quiet (Tower Poetry, Oxford, 2013) and elsewhere. Her debut pamphlet, ‘Malkin’, was published by the Emma Press in 2015.

‘Malkin’ brims and bubbles with the voices of those accused in the Pendle Witch Trials of 1612. Thirteen men and women – speaking across the centuries via Ralphs’ heady use of free spelling – plead, boast and confess, immersing the reader in this charged and dangerous time in history.

James Trevelyan grew up in the Midlands and now lives in London. His poems have been published in print and online magazines, and anthologised by the Emma Press. He is Poetry Reviews

Editor for the Cadaverine and works for the independent publisher Penned in the Margins. His debut pamphlet, ‘DISSOLVE TO: L.A.’, is publishing in March 2016 with the Emma Press.

Following a poetic tradition giving voice to literature’s under-written characters, James Trevelyan has trawled the action films of the 1980s-90s to give life where it was extinguished too early. What is it to be on the peripheries? What does it mean to die in a movie scene? Through this sequence of poems spoken in the voices of the forgotten, Trevelyan provides a humorous and tender exploration into morality, mortality and contemporary existence.

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Sunday 20th March 2pm

Jacqueline Harris ‘In Skriker’s Footsteps’ is a bold multi-media storytelling piece that brings together projection, animation, sound and live performance, its roots here in the people and landscape of Lancashire.

Jacqueline Harris performs her own sharp and lyrical tellings of old and new tales, Marjan Wouda’s skrikers, white dobbies and spectral cats blaze into life and the audience become part of the story.

A unique collaboration between storyteller Jacqueline Harris, sculptor Marjan Wouda and theatre projectionist Adam York Gregory.

Venue: The Sanctuary @ Lancaster Library Tickets: £10 / £8 concessions Booking: www.litfest.org and Lancaster Visitor Information Centre 01524 582394

In Skriker’s Footsteps

Friday 4th March 8.15pm

In Conversation With Paula DalyAuthor of ‘Just What Kind Of Mother Are You?’ & ‘The Mistake I Made’

A fascinating session with Paula Daly, writer of compelling psychological and crime fiction novels. The evening will look at the process of writing a novel and getting it published - and there will be plenty of time for questions afterwards! Hosted by Helen Day from the University of Central Lancashire.

Paula was born in Lancashire and currently lives in the Lake District with her husband, three children and whippet Skippy. She was a self-employed physiotherapist before beginning her first novel ‘Just What Kind Of Mother Are You?’ and her

experiences are reflected in her writing.

Her first novel was nominated for Best First Novel by Strand Magazine, and her second, ‘Keep Your Friends Close’ was shortlisted for the 2014 CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger Award.

Part of Lancaster Arts City’s First FridaysFirst Fridays are a monthly multi-disciplinary mini-festival of the arts organised by Lancaster Arts City, which happens on the first Friday of every month. Each event brings together artists and performers from the local and national scene in venues across Lancaster, featuring music, literature, drama, visual arts, cinema, poetry and much more. Find out more: www.artscity.co.uk

Venue: The Auditorium @ The Storey Tickets: £10 / £8 Booking: www.litfest.org and Lancaster Visitor Information Centre in The Storey

In Conversation With Paula Daly

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Wednesday 16th March 7pm - 9pm

Writing a Migration Writing workshop with Sarah Hymas

Using sculptures and prints featured in Catriona Stamp’s ‘Where Are We Going?’ exhibition as departure points, this workshop will explore what migration means to us and how we’re connected to current and historical migrations. We will explore themes of home, alienation and change.

This is a workshop of play, investigation, art and imagery, open to all, however experienced you are as a writer and whatever form you usually write in.

‘Where Are We Going?’ is an exhibition of paper sculpture, prints, artistsbooks and film by Catriona Stamp, featuring new work on human migration. Taking place from Friday 4th March to Tuesday 22nd March, Monday – Friday noon – 6pm, at The Storey.

Saturday 12th March 7.30pm

Lemn Sissay An inspirational evening of poems and performance

With support from Sasha Mitchell and Pete Moser singing ‘Love Songs of World War 3’ by Adrian Mitchell

More Music in conjunction with Litfest present an inspirational evening of poems and performance from the poet who tweets every morning with words of wisdom and humour. Lemn has worked on various More Music projects including The Long Walk and Preston Guild and has an international reputation as a writer and performer.

The night will be fun and a full of powerful stories. Lemn was the official poet for the London Olympics and recently appointed Chancellor of Manchester University.

Sunday 13 March, 10.30am-4pm

Off Stage with Lemn Sissay Where do the words come from? How do ideas form? What is a song?Lemn will take you through a process of creative writing to make your own lyrics and spoken word pieces and Pete Moser will then help you turn them into song. Both these artists are committed to creativity and working with young people. Learn from their experience and take your own creative journey.

Venue: The Hothouse, Morecambe Tickets: £7 - £12 Booking: In person via the Hothouse and Morecambe Visitor Information Centre in the Platform or via Brewery Arts Centre online www.breweryarts.co.uk/book/375525 or by phone 01539 725133. Booking fees apply.

Venue: The Hothouse, Morecambe Tickets: £25 Please book your place at www.moremusic.org.uk/offstage-lemnsissay or by calling Rebecca Lockley on 01524 831 997.

Venue: The Gallery @ The Storey Tickets: £10 / £5 Booking: Visit... http://sarahhymas.net/facilitator/writing-workshops/writing-a-migration/

Booking and VisitingOnline: www.litfest.org

Telephone: 01524 582394

In person: Lancaster Visitor Information CentreThe Storey, Meeting House Lane, Lancaster LA1 1TH (Monday - Saturday 10am - 4pm)

LitfestThe Storey Meeting House Lane Lancaster LA1 1TH www.litfest.org T: 01524 62166

Travelling to EventsThe StoreyMeeting House Lane, Lancaster LA1 1TH

The Storey is located in Lancaster City Centre, just 2 minutes’ walk from Lancaster Railway Station (follow signs to the city centre). There are several Pay and Display car parks in and around the city centre, the closest being Dallas Road and Parksafe which is accessed via Bridge Lane and Damside Street.

Access InformationIf you require a large print version of the brochure please contact marketing@litfest.org

The Storey is fully accessible to wheelchair users. If you wish to reserve a wheelchair space in the auditorium please email marketing@litfest.org .

Guide dogs and hearing dogs are welcome.

Please check other venue websites for further access information.

VolunteersOver the years our festival has flourished due to the invaluable help from our volunteers. If you’d like to offer your support, whether working front of house or putting up a poster, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact marketing@litfest.org

Lancaster Library18 - 20 Market Street, Lancaster LA1 1HY

There is no immediate car parking outside the library but there are car parks and disabled spaces nearby. For more details see www.lancaster.gov.uk/parking

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Date Time Event Venue

Friday 4th March 8.15pm In Conversation With Paula DalyThe Auditorium @ The Storey

Saturday 12th March 7.30pm Lemn Sissay The Hothouse, Morecambe

Sunday 13th March 10.30am Off Stage With Lemn Sissay The Hothouse, Morecambe

Wednesday 16th March 7.00pm Writing a Migration The Gallery @ The Storey

Thursday 17th March 7.30pmInspiring Stories - Fact and Fiction From The Bay

The Auditorium @ The Storey

Friday 18th March 6.00pmAn Evening of Alternate Realities -J. S. Collyer & Eddie Robson

The Music Room @ The Storey

Friday 18th March 7.15pmAn Evening of Alternate Realities - Panel discussion - ‘Genre Bending’

The Music Room @ The Storey

Friday 18th March 8.30pmAn Evening of Alternate Realities - ‘Good Science’ - Saskia Goldschmidt, Adrian Tchaikovsky & Justina Robson

The Music Room @ The Storey

Saturday 19th March 2.00pmA Day of Poetry - My Dear Watson by Beautiful Dragons Collaborations

The Sanctuary @ Lancaster Library

Saturday 19th March 4.00pm A Day of Poetry - Three Wayleave PoetsThe Sanctuary @ Lancaster Library

Saturday 19th March 5.30pm A Day of Poetry - Poets from the Emma PressThe Sanctuary @ Lancaster Library

Sunday 20th March 2.00pm In Skriker’s FootstepsThe Sanctuary @ Lancaster Library

Funded byAll details are correct at the time of going to press. We reserve the right to change the programme if circumstances dictate. Litfest cannot refund money for purchased tickets, except in the case of a cancelled event. Lancaster & District Festival Ltd, trading as Litfest. Registered Company No. 1494221. Registered Charity No. 510670.

Event Schedule