Poetry showcase with poets associated with the University of Leeds Poetry Centre. Join us for a reading of poems celebrating or insired by Midsummer with poets including Ian Duhig, Rob Miles, Maia Elsner, Kate Simpson, Matt Howard, and others to be announced.
Florence Grimes is a 31-year-old party girl who always takes the easy way out. After a dismal end to her girlband career, she's living in West London, single, broke and unfulfilled with only her son Dylan to keep her afloat. But then Alfie Risby, the ten-year-old heir to a frozen food empire and Dylan’s school rival, mysteriously vanishes on a class trip, and Dylan becomes a prime suspect.
Hear Schwa tell the story in music and words of Edna St.Vincent Millay, the Taylor Swift of 1930’s American literature and the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Love Is Not All is an original set of 13 songs setting words by the radical, bisexual poet Edna St. Vincent Millay who filled stadiums in 1930’s America before burning out and dying in her fifties. Millay’s story is one of rural poverty, city riches, art, passion and morphine told in a suite of songs reflecting the musical styles that spoke to her: American Folk, Music Hall and Jazz.
In Wild Women Writing the North, author and poet Rachel Bower is in conversation with poet, academic and folklorist Professor Emily Zobel Marshall. Rachel will talk about, and read from, her debut novel It Comes from the River (Bloomsbury) as well as her new poetry collection, Bee (Hazel Press). Emily will share her insights and also read from her first poetry collection, Bath of Herbs (Peepal Tree Press).
Join Christopher R. Moore (Leeds Poetry Festival Award 2023, Frances Browne Literary Festival Award 2024) for a short lecture on sports, A. E Housman, and the surprising importance of single-syllable words in poetry.
This will be followed by a workshop, which will explore setting, voice, and poetic structure through a series of unique and collaborative prompts.
You will also have the opportunity to perform and receive feedback on the poems created in this workshop. What Have You In Your Heart is designed to help you create cleaner, braver poetry.
Novel Notions is a community book swap, held quarterly at Headrow House. The idea is simple; drop off some books that are collecting dust on your shelves and get a token per book that you pass on. Grab a filter coffee or a bite to eat downstairs, then come back and explore the wide range of books dropped off by Leeds' bookish community. Scout through forgotten classics, nab a new release and find new favourites!
Northodox Press is a fiction publisher based in Northern England, representing authors born in or currently living in Northern England.
Join us on our fifth birthday for a special event featuring a short history of the press, and showcasing some of the wonderful writers they've worked with since they first made a splash on the publishing scene.
Let's go book lovers.
We're appalled by the recent Supreme Court ruling so let's raise funds for the Good Law Project. They have an ongoing fighting fund for trans rights and are actively challenging the ruling.
The shop will be filled with pre-loved queer books so come on down. If it's busy when you arrive, then it's worth popping back because there are always quiet times later in the day.
This July, Lisa Jewell is back with her latest addictive read ‘Don’t Let Him In’. We are absolutely thrilled to be hosting an Evening with Lisa, the number one New York and Sunday Times Author who has sold over ten million books worldwide.
Don’t miss this opportunity to meet and find out more about an international, bestselling Author’s new, page-turner and gain an insight into Lisa’s astonishing writing and publishing journey.
The New Book
Join us for a celebration of a city and its people.
With a Pan-African outlook, this anthology includes narratives from people born in Kenya, Nigeria, Angola, and Zimbabwe, as well as those born, raised or living in Yorkshire of African diasporic descent.
Our City, Our Lives, Our Stories is the first anthology of writing about life in Leeds written entirely by writers of African descent