BBR in Conversation @ the Wolverhampton Literature Festival – 5/6 February 2022
The Wolverhampton Literature Festival is back! Hosted by City of Wolverhampton Council, the festival aims to amplify the voice of authors, poets, writers, storytellers, puppeteers, podcasters, vloggers and publishers across the UK. Celebrating our creative communities from the Black Country and further.
The Big Book Review team will be hosting two events:
- CRIME WRITING AND QUALITY
Crime writing is immensely popular with the public, yet is often considered lowbrow genre fiction without any merit, certainly not literary. But does the way it’s written actually bear this out?
Join Dr Aidan Byrne (University of Wolverhampton) in conversation with a panel of contemporary crime writers as they delve into the reputation of the whodunnit. Alongside psychological suspense novelist Holly Seddon (The Hit List) and thriller writer Mark Edwards (The Hollows), he’ll explore the real value of genre fiction, and investigate the booming Northern Irish crime writing scene with Sharon Dempsey (Who Took Eden Mulligan?) and Brian McGilloway (Blood Ties): why is Northern Ireland such a fruitful place for crime fiction? For more information, click here.
Date: 5 February – Time: 7:30pm – Venue: Online Event – BOOK HERE (donation)
- THE BLACK COUNTRY, BELFAST AND THE BIG BOOK REVIEW
How do stories we tell about places affect the way we – and others – see them? How do people in different parts of the UK respond to novels set in ‘peripheral’ literary regions? And what role do local writing and reading communities play in this?
Join writer Dr Lisa Blower (University of Wolverhampton, Common People Collective) and Belfast-based novelist Jan Carson (The Fire Starters) in conversation with Professor Sebastian Groes (University of Wolverhampton, Novel Perceptions project) as they explore the relationship between writing and place, regional identity, and the way both writers explore these questions in their fiction. For more information, click here.
Date: 6 February – Time: 2:30pm – Venue: Online Event – BOOK HERE (free)
Recordings of past events
From conversations with writers like Kit de Waal and Will Self to debates about literary memorialisation, you can catch up with recordings of past events here.
Beyond Bloomsday: Towards an inclusive celebration of literary lives
Wolverhampton Literature Festival
Novel Memories: Reading and Remembering in Northern Ireland
Belfast Book Festival
Novel Perceptions: The benefits of an inclusive reading ‘diet’
University Centre Telford, University of Wolverhampton
Novel Memories at Wolverhampton Literature Festival
Will Self in conversation with Professor Sebastian Groes
Kit de Waal in conversation with Professor Sarah Churchwell
Being Human Festival 2020
Watch this space for upcoming events, or follow us on Twitter @NovelEnquiries for the latest updates.