The twelfth year of the Wordpool festival, Blackpool Arts and Libraries’ Festival of Words, dawns: 2018 promises to be yet another fantastic event.
The Wordpool festival in May will reflect the nation’s mood, sharing the romance of the impending Royal Wedding with an evening of bestselling romantic fiction at Stanley Park’s Art Deco Café on Tuesday 15th May from 6pm. Best-selling authors Carole Matthews and Fiona Walker with host Hayley Kay of Radio Wave will attend a fundraising launch event with romance, food, music and laughter for a special week.
On Wednesday 16th May TV writer and comedian Mark Billingham will be discussing the 14th book in his Tom Thorne series with Head of Blackpool Libraries Mark McCree. Tackling the difficult and emotive subject of honour killings in the UK this shocking and topical thriller has received much critical acclaim.
Darren McGarvey aka Scottish rapper, Loki, will be challenging our young audiences at Blackpool 6th Form College with his wise and witty manifesto for change, Poverty Safari. New talent and 2018 publishing sensations, C J Tudor and Nick Clark Windo, are creating quite a buzz at Wordpool festival HQ. With a TV series already in production for Windo’s The Feed and Tudor’s The Chalk Man tipped to be THE NOVEL of the YEAR, the students are excitedly waiting to quiz them.
Blackpool’s branch libraries are hosting special events that offer a heady mix of tea, cake and fiction. Authors are as diverse as thriller writer Elisabeth Carpenter (Palatine Library), historical novelist Joanna Hickson (Moor Park Library) and author of the Kate Shackleton Mysteries, Frances Brody (Anchorsholme Library café).
The festival is delighted to be working with CommaPress and BlueMoose Books to bring you events and short story writing projects. BlueMoose Books is launching its eagerly awaited anthology of short stories inspired by the North-West coast, Seaside Special: Postcards from the Edge. Kevin Duffy (BlueMoose Books) joins three of the Seaside Special authors, Costa Award Winner – Andrew Michael Hurley, Anita Sethi, Lucy Wilkinson Yates and editor Jenn Ashworth at a special event at Central Library on the evening of festival Wednesday. Is Jenn also the author of Fell, a fine book I recently read and set just up the coast in Grange over Sands?
Following on from the success of last year’s Writers’ Day, Wordpool is delighted to partner with Comma Press on a full-day programme of writers’ events (Central Library – Thursday 17th May 12-4.30pm). Local writing talent to join a bespoke six workshop short story course with published short story writer and author Tania Hershman will also be recruited. This starts June 14th, Thursdays 6-8pm at Palatine Library. Comma Press, one of the UK’s leading publishers of short fiction, is always looking for new voices in short fiction and it’s hoped that this course will help find some talent.
This is the second year of Wordpool’s two year development programme funded through Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants: thank for this support. Wordpool’s ever popular Family Day will be in Stanley Park on Saturday July 7th. Roll Up, Roll Up to Wordpool’s Most Marvellous Family Day with wondrous fun for all ages.
For tickets and more information on Wordpool and the Festival of Written Word, please go to www.wordpoolfestival.co.uk like us on Facebook and follow us on twitter and Instagram @Wordpoolfest
Cover and hippo images courtesy of CJGriffiths Photography.
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