Writer Phillip Pullman _320
LITERARY giants will descend on the city next month for the first Liverpool Literary Festival.
Philip Pullman, author of the renowned His Dark Materials trilogy, will be joined by 38 internationally acclaimed writers dur-ing the week-long Shipping Lines Literary Festival.
Pullman, who will deliver the festival’s opening talk as well as an “in conversation” talk said: “I’m looking forward to visiting Liverpool and picking up some culture. It’s always a pleas-ure to talk about writing and reading to people who are interested in listening.”
Other famous names include Booker Prize winner A S Byatt, Howard Jacobson and Monica Ali, winner of Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards, who will discuss her multi award-winning novel Brick Lane, of a Bangladeshi family’s immigrant experiences in Britain.
Liverpool heavy-weights will play a key part with Frank Cottrell Boyce discussing the transition from book to screen and children’s author Tommy Donbavand.
Poet and novelist, Simon Armitage, recent-ly shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize for the poetry collection Tyranno-saurus Rex Versus The Corduroy Kid, will be joined by poets Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Carol Ann Duffy at the festival.
Mr McGough said: “The festival is a great way of acknowledging Liverpool’s literary heritage and welcoming new talent to the city. I will be reading from my work, as well as hosting a session whereby read-ers can discuss favourite poetry and exchange recommendations.”
The brainchild of The Reader Organisation for the School of English at the University of Liver-pool, the festival was organised to celebrate to Capital of Culture year.
Organisers hope the week of talks and inter-active workshops will create a literacy legacy for the city long after the celebrations have ended.
Vice-Chancellor Prof-essor Sir Howard Newby said: “Shipping lines were once the life-blood of this great city. The ‘lines’ of our title are lines of writing, which carry great ideas, as well as human experience and imagination around the globe.”
He added: “We’ve brought a world-class range of writers to Liver-pool so you can listen, think, read, talk, argue – but above all enjoy the festival.”
The festival takes place at venues across the city including the university’s Victoria Gallery and Museum, the Bluecoat and Fact.
Professor Marcus Walsh, head of the uni-versity’s School of Eng-lish, said: “We’re thrill-ed to welcome so many renowned writers in Capital of Culture year and hope the festival will inspire those passionate about reading and writing.”
The festival is open be-tween November 3 and 9.
Tickets from the Philharmonic Hall Box Of-fice or online at http://www.liv.ac.uk/literaryfestival
