The
annual book festival returns with guests including Linwood Barclay,
Simon Armitage, Lucy Worsley, Alan Johnson, Mark Watson, Rachel Joyce,
Jeremy Vine and Lynda La Plante plus a specially-commissioned family
show adapted from Val McDermid’s My Granny is a Pirate.
This
year’s festival takes place from 12th-20th October in a selection of venues
around Durham. The varied programme for 2013 includes a thrilling list
of internationally known crime authors, politicians, academics, poets,
and writers of all genres and styles.
The programme includes many household names from literature,
politics and broadcasting, including Jeremy Vine, Lynda La Plante, Alan
Johnson, Lucy Worsley and Walter Mosley.
There are also several
new commissions for this year, including a new piece of work by Festival
Laureate, poet Paul Muldoon; Benjamin Markovits as the first ever
Investec Ashes writer-in-residence; and musician and singer Kathryn
Williams with a new EP of songs inspired by Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar
to celebrate 50 years since its publication.
The festival will be hosting Carina Rodney's specially-commissioned
musical adaptation of Val McDermid's children’s book, My Granny is a
Pirate, directed by Annie Rigby. Musicians from Sage Gateshead and a
team of performers will bring the acclaimed crime author's first foray
into children's literature to life at Durham Town Hall on Saturday 12
October. New Writing North is also delighted to be taking the show on
the road, touring to community centres, libraries and schools across
County Durham as well as to Manchester and Sheffield as part of a
partnership with other book festivals in the North.
The programme launch event included an appearance by acclaimed
writer David Peace, author of the Red Riding Quartet and The Damned
United, who read a short extract from his new novel, Red or Dead, and
also announced the shortlist for the Gordon Burn Prize, which you can
read more about here.
The launch also revealed a series of exciting events scheduled for
young readers and writers in this year's programme, with the Durham Book
Festival Schools Day on Wednesday 2 October and the Cuckoo Shop in
Framwellgate where 14-25 year-olds can blog, book advice sessions with
established authors, and generally take a sideways look at the festival.
The Cuckoo Shop will also host exclusive masterclasses with authors
Gavin Extence, Benjamin Markovits and Matt Haig and poets John Challis
and Anna Woodford so aspiring writers can learn from the best. You can
find out more about the Cuckoo programme for young writers at www.newwritingnorth.com/projects-cuckoo-young-writers-page-2244.html.
There are many more events – over 60 this year, including a number
of free events – so have a look at the full programme and book tickets
at www.durhambookfestival.com.
Durham Book Festival is produced by New Writing North for Durham
County Council and supported by Durham University and Arts Council
England, with sponsorship from Banks Group, Swinburne Maddison, PwC, and
the University of Sunderland.
New Writing North are delighted to reveal
the shortlist for the inaugural Gordon Burn Prize, which was announced at the launch for the 2013 Durham Book Festival. The prize
was set up by Gordon’s publisher Faber & Faber, New Writing North,
and the Gordon Burn Trust to celebrate books which capture the spirit
and sensibility of Gordon’s writing.
Born and raised in Newcastle – his mother worked at Binns, his
father was a paint-sprayer and Gordon was a regular visitor to St James’
Park football ground – Gordon Burn, who died in 2009, is known as a
writer who never shied away from a controversial or complicated story.
For him, no subject or character was beyond fictionalising; from Peter
Sutcliffe, Alma Cogan, George Best and Bobby Charlton, to Damien Hirst,
Gordon Brown and Margaret Thatcher.
Renowned novelist David Peace, author of The Damned United and the
Red Riding Quartet, was at the launch to announce the eclectic and
exciting shortlist. Peace is one of the judges for the prize, along with
journalist Deborah Orr and novelist and broadcaster Mark Lawson.
The 2013 shortlist, which includes fiction and non-fiction, from
small and big publishers alike, and authors from all over the UK, is:
How I Killed Margaret Thatcher by Anthony Cartwright (Tindal Street Press)
The Footballer Who Could Fly by Duncan Hamilton (Century)
People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry (Jonathan Cape)
Pig Iron by Benjamin Myers (Blue Moose Books)
Myra, Beyond Saddleworth by Jean Rafferty (Wild Wolf Publishing)
The winner will be announced on 19th October at a special event during
Durham Book Festival at 6.30pm in Durham Town Hall, with the
shortlisted authors reading from their work accompanied by music from
Field Music’s Dave Brewis. Tickets are on sale from 10am on Thursday 8th
August. For full details of the festival, including how to buy tickets
for this and all the other events, see www.durhambookfestival.com.
Please see the Gordon Burn Trust website for further details on The Gordon Burn Prize as well as information on Gordon’s work.
The Durham Book Festival team at
New Writing North is working with the Hearing the Voice project at
Durham University on a special series of events which will take place
during this year’s festival. As part of the project, they’d like to invite writers of
all levels to contribute to a pamphlet of poetry, prose and non-fiction
in English about hearing voices when walking in the city. In addition to
a specially-commissioned piece by Iain Sinclair, StepAway magazine will
publish a special issue of a collection of walking narratives by both
voice-hearers and writers who creatively imagine hearing voices.
Submissions can be as long as a 1,000-word essay or story, or as
short as a 17-syllable haiku. Submissions can be named or anonymous, as
the writers wish.
Deadline: 1st August 2013.
For full details and to
apply, see http://hearingthevoice.org.
