About this Events Guide
Love all things literary? Looking for book events and literature lectures in the North East? Our monthly what’s on guide captures the literature and book chat, lectures, readings and other events.
In current Covid-19 circumstances, most events are online and open to a global audience. However, we still focus on promoting events organised by universities, bookshops, museums and festivals in County Durham, Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, Teesside, Northumberland and surrounding areas.
If you are organising a relevant book and literature-related event that could be added, let us know.
Join 600 other book-loving subscribers
Enter your email to receive this listing at the start of the month.
Share with a Friend
If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, share it with them.
Wed 05 17:30 – Online | Poetry Reading with Peter Gizzi |
 | Peter Gizzi’s recent books include Now It’s Dark (2020) and Archeophonics (2016). Also in 2020, Sky Burial: New & Selected Poems came out from Carcanet in the UK. Organised by Inventions of the Text.
|
Wed 05 17:30 – Online | What’s love got to do with it? Law and Literature in 1920s British Somaliland with Professor Katherine Baxter |
 | How did literature shape British perceptions of the colonies in the interwar years? And what opportunities did literature provide for debating how the colonies should be governed? Organised by Northumbria University.
|
Wed 05 19:00 – Online | Short Fiction with Désirée Reynolds |
 | This interactive talk is aimed at new writers who are thinking about writing short stories or flash fiction. Writer, editor, journalist and broadcaster Désirée Reynolds will talk you through how to approach writing for this genre and answer any questions you may have. Questions can also be submitted in advance, when booking. Organised by New Writing North.
|
Thu 06 19:00 – Online | Diary of a Film with Niven Govinden and Preti Taneja |
 | Diary of a Film (Hachette, 2021) is a novel about cinema, flâneurs, and queer love – it is about the sometimes troubled, sometimes ecstatic creative process, and the toll it takes on its makers. But it is also a novel about stories, and the ongoing question of who has the right to tell them. Organised by Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts.
|
Fri 07 14:30 – Online | Agatha Christie a zest for life with Ian McArdle |
 | Discover the life of Agatha Christie, the world’s best-selling author of all time, known for her detective novels, plays and her famous detective sleuths Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Organised by Newcastle Libraries.
|
Tue 11 17:30 – Online | From All Writers Matter to Zadie Smith (via Badgers) – a speedy A to Z of being a Black British children’s writer with Patrice Lawrence |
 | In 2019, Elizabeth Acevedo became the first writer of colour to win the UK’s CILIP Carnegie Medal in its 83-year history. When we walk into the children’s section of bookshops, we can easily spot books by Angie Thomas, Nic Stone, Jason Reynolds and Kalynn Bayron. So, what’s so tough about being a black writer? Let’s talk… Organised by Newcastle University Insights.
|
Wed 12 17:30 – Online | Edward Lear in Transit with Professor Matthew Bevis |
| What—if anything—do Lear’s paintings and poems see in one another? And what sense (or nonsense) can be made from thinking about landscapes alongside limericks? Organised by Inventions of the Text.
|
Wed 12 17:30 – Online | ‘The Crisis of the Novel in Tristram Shandy and Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas’ and ‘TBC’ with Sandra Guardini Teixeira Vasconcelos and David O’Hanlon-Alexandra |
 | Joining details will be circulated via the Forum mailing list. Organised by The North East Forum in Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Studies.
|
Thu 13 18:00 – The Word | An Audience with with Linda Green |
 | Join bestselling author Linda Green as she discusses her career as a writer and her novel The Last Thing She Told Me which was chosen as a Read Regional Title in 2020. Organised by The Word.
|
Thu 13 19:00 – Online | Lean Fall Stand with Jon McGregor and Rachel Hewitt |
| Award-winning novelist Jon McGregor returns with a stunning novel that mesmerizingly and tenderly unpicks the notion of heroism and explores the indomitable human impulse to tell our stories – even when words fail us. A meditation on the line between sacrifice and selfishness this is a story of the undervalued, unrecognised courage it can take just to get through the day. Organised by Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts.
|
Thu 13 19:00 – Online | Write a Crime Novel with Jacob Ross |
| This workshop is aimed at writers who have begun working on their crime manuscript and are looking for ways to improve and revise it. This is an opportunity to have access to the experience and guidance of award-winning crime writer and editor Jacob Ross. Organised by New Writing North.
|
Fri 14 12:00 – Online | Staff and Postgraduate Research Seminar with Professor Rhiannon Purdie |
 | Professor Purdie’s main research interests are in Older Scots literature, later Middle English literature, medieval romance, and textual editing. Organised by Durham University Department of English Studies.
|
Wed 19 20:00 – Online | Fiction about Psychosis: Impact, ethics, effects with Jasper Gibson and Jacqui Dillon |
 | What challenges do writers and readers of fiction face when it comes to stories about madness? Organised by Durham University Institute for Medical Humanities.
|
Thu 20 17:00 – Online | Thinking about …. Literature in a Time of Migration with Professor Josephine McDonagh and Professor Charlotte S. Sussman |
 | The latest in a series of online events examining the Victorians at home and abroad, co-organised by the Birkbeck Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies and the Durham Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies. Organised by Durham University Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies.
|
Thu 20 19:00 – Online | Screenwriting & Writing ‘Small Axe’ with Courttia Newland and Tina Gharavi |
| Courttia Newland is an author, screenwriter, playwright, creative writing tutor and literary activist. As a screenwriter he has written episodes of Steve McQueen’s 2020 BBC series Small Axe: Lovers Rock and Red, White and Blue and is signed up to write a feature adaptation of Kei Miller’s novel Augustown (to be directed by Shabier Kirchner). Organised by Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts.
|
Thu 27 18:00 – Online | The Golden Age of Detective Fiction with Martin Edwards |
 | Detective fiction from the ‘Golden Age’ between the two world wars has enjoyed an astonishing renaissance in recent years, not just in Britain but across the world. Long forgotten books are selling more copies in reprint editions than when they were first published. What is more, a wide range of bestselling authors are writing novels which, in one way or another, build on the tropes and traditions of the Golden Age, often in highly inventive fashion. What lies behind this unexpected literary phenomenon? Organised by The Lit and Phil.
|
