DURHAM LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2000
SATURDAY 3 JUNE - LAUNCH DAY
Something for the Weekend at Toni and Guy
During April Clare Pollard was poet in residence at Toni and Guy salon in Durham City where she gossiped with clients and dug out the secrets of the stylists to create a spoecially commissioned poem.
Join Clare as she launches the festival with a with a reading in the salon and see the stunning shop window display
12noon. Toni and Guy’s, Prince Bishops Centre, Durham. Free
Saturday Night Scots:
WN Herbert, Don Paterson, Kathleen Jamie
W. N. Herbert is the author of The Laurelude and Cabaret McGonagall. Don Paterson is a prize-winning poet whose collections include God’s Gift to Women and The Eyes. Kathleen Jamie is one of Scotland’s foremost poets, her collections include The Queen of Sheba and The Golden Peak.
7.30pm Waterstone’s, Saddler Street, Durham. £5.00 (£3.00 conc.)
SUNDAY 4 JUNE
Poetic Spirit
A companion event to Beyond Belief featuring two poets whose work touches on the the things that we believe in. Gillian Allnutt is a poet based in Durham whose collection Nantucket and the Angel was published by Bloodaxe.
Imtiaz Dharker is a poet and filmmaker based in Bombay. She is the author of Purdah and Postcards from God. This is a special appearance at Word4Word.
3.00pm. Waterstone’s, Saddler Street, Durham. £5.00 (£3.00 conc.)
MONDAY 5 JUNE
Up and Coming
Join recent award winning writers from the Northern Writers’ Awards 2000. With Chaz Brenchley and Margaret Wilkinson reading new fiction and poetry from SJ Litherland, Andrew Waterhouse and Angela Readman.
7.30pm. Durham City Library, South Street £3.00 (£2.00conc.)
TUESDAY 6 JUNE
Poetry from the Edge:
Lemn Sissay, Sarah MaguireTwo outstanding poets whose work defies distinctions between the page and the stage. Lemn Sissay is a poet and a recording artist, whose work fuses the lyrical and the polemical with up-beat humour and deadly seriousness. Sarah Maguire writes dark, erotic and complex poems which attend to wider issues such as politics and nationality.
7.30pm. Town Hall, Market Place, Durham. £5.00 (£3.00 conc.)
WEDNESDAY 7 JUNE
www. literature or literature.com?
A workshop that will show readers how to find commercial sites and booksellers, track down that elusive out-of-print book, and show writers how to publicise and publish work on the Internet.
3.00pm. Durham City Library, South Street. £2.00 (£1.00 conc.)
THURSDAY 8 JUNE
Three Poets:
Helen Dunmore, UA Fanthorpe, Jo Shapcott.Three of the foremost poetic talents in the country reading together in a special one off tour of the North. Helen Dunmore is well known for her success as a novelist with books such as A Spell in Winter (Winner of the Orange Fiction Prize), With Your Crooked Heart and Talking to the Dead. UA Fanthorpe was a contender for the recent Poet Laureatship and is the author of several poetry books including the forthcoming Selected Poems and Safe as Houses, The Crystal Zoo and Neck Verse. Jo Shapcott is the current Northern Literary Fellow and author of the Forward Prize winning collection My Life Asleep. Her new selected collection Her Book is published by Faber and Faber this spring
7.30pm. Town Hall, Market Place, Durham. £6.00 (£4.00conc.)
BSL SIGNED EVENT.
FRIDAY 9 JUNE
Here and Now:
Simon Armitage & A.N.Other
Simon Armitage is ‘the poet of his generation’. His work includes award-winning collections of poetry as Zoom! Cuckoo, Book of Matches and the recent prose work All points North. His most recent poetic work, Killing Time, is a 1000 line poem to mark the end of the Millennium written during his residency with the New Millennium Experience Company.
PLEASE NOTE: For personal reasons Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate, who was scheduled to appear this evening has withdrawn from the festival. He hopes to appear in Durham at a future date. Watch this page for news of his replacement.
7.30pm, Town Hall, Market Place, Durham. £9.00 (£7.00 conc.)
SATURDAY 10 JUNE
New Contemporaries
A superlative line up of contemporary fiction writers. Geoff Dyer is the well-travelled author of Paris Trance and Anglo English Attitudes. Jake Arnott’s much praised first novel The Long Firm uncovers the sordid world of gangsters in London in the sixties. Toby Litt is the author of two savvy novels, Beatniks and the recent Corpsing, a murder mystery set in London.
6.30pm, Town Hall, Market Place, Durham. £5.00 (£3.00 conc.)
An Evening with Will Self
Lily Bloom is the central character in Will Self's new book , How the Dead Live, which he will be reading from and discussing this evening. Dying of cancer , Lily slips in and out of conciousness; outraged thatv there is so little time left and so many people still to disparage. Will Self is the author of the novels Great Apes and My Idea of Fun and the collections of short stories, The Quantity Theory of Insanity and Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys. He is also a respected journalist and commentator and is the current television critic for the Independant on Sunday.
8.30pm, Town Hall, Market Place, Durham. £6.00 (£4.00 conc.)
SUNDAY 11 JUNE
Retro Retro
In an age of uncertainty, we often beat a retreat to the flavour of the recent past, indulging ourselves with nostalgic escapism. A new anthology Retro Retro invites us to pick and mix from the retro treasure chest. Looking at the present through a rear-view mirror. Who says you can never go back? With editor and writers Amy Prior, Eleanor Knight and Tony White.
3pm, Bishop Auckland Town Hall, Market Place. £3.00 (£2.00 conc.)
Antiquarian & Second Hand Book Fair
12 noon – 5.00pm. Bishop Auckland Town Hall. Market Place
MONDAY 12 JUNE
Crimewave
An evening of virtual joyriding and literary magic. Andrea Badenoch is the author of two gripping urban thrillers Mortal and Driven. Her work features strong female protagonists and recognisably Northern settings with her new novel Blink set in County Durham. Martin Bedford is the Yorkshire based author of The Houdini Girl, a gripping murder mystery which has been described as "nerve-racking, bold, unusual and stylish". Sometimes when the lady vanishes, she stays vanished.
7.30pm, Newton Hall Library, Alnwick Road, Durham. £3.00 (£2.00 conc.)
TUESDAY 13 JUNE
Strange Days
A night of quirky and original fiction. Daren King is the acclaimed author of Boxy an Star a chronicle of the lives of a group of dazed and confused teens. Charles Fernyhough’s first novel The Auctioneer delivers a doomy prophecy about the brain-wasting illness known as ‘Bliss’. Andrew Crumey’s Mr Mee is genial octogenarian who abandons dusty books and enters into a world of the unexpected via the Internet.
7.30pm, Waterstones’s, Saddler Street, Durham. £5.00 (£3.00 conc.)
WEDNESDAY 14 JUNE
Write Across the North
Jonathan Tulloch’s first novel Season Ticket has been snapped up by the director of The Full Monty and will be released as a film this summer. It follows the exploits of two Gateshead boys as they try and secure season tickets for Newcastle United. Margaret Burt is the author of Sweet Dreams are Made of This, a dark contemporary fairy tale of obsession and violence set in the borders of Scotland and Northumberland.
7.30pm, Belmont Library, Cheverley Park Shopping Centre £4.00 (£3.00)
Memory Box
A practical workshop led by writer WENDY ROBERTSON, on how the past can best be incorporated into contemporary writing.
7.30pm. Bishop Auckland Town Hall. Market Place. £3.00 (£2.00 concs) from Bishop Auckland Town Hall. Tel: 01388 602 610
THURSDAY 15 JUNE
Globe Trotting:
Linda Grant, Amy Jenkins.
Linda Grant, winner of this year's Orange Prize for fiction, is a feature writer for the Guardian and author of Remind Me Who I Am, Again. Her new novel When I Lived in Modern is a book about identity, terrorism, love and the art of hairdressing.
Amy Jenkins originated BBC 2’s genre-shattering series This Life. Her first novel Honey Moon is a globe-trotting twenty-somethings take on marriage and relationships.
7.30pm, Waterstone’s, Saddler Street, Durham. £5.00 (£3.00 conc.)
SATURDAY 17 JUNE
Beyond Belief
A special event in which writers share their thoughts on the subject of belief. What's left to believe in? Find out via newly commissioned work from four very different writers. Subhadassi is a Buddhist and poet based in Newcastle, whose first collection was Sublunary Voodoo. The latest novel by Catherine Fox is Love for the Lost, described as a story of "love, faith and redemption". Jo Shapcott is the current Northern Literary Fellow, whose collection is Her Book. Joolz is now one of Britain’s leading woman performance poets, with a book Errors of the Spirit published this month.
8pm. St. Oswald’s Church, Church Street, Durham £5.00 (£3.00 conc.) BSL SIGNED EVENT
SUNDAY 18 JUNE
Publish and be Damned
A blockbuster of a day at Bishop Auckland Town Hall which explores a variety of routes to getting your work published. Featuring book stalls, an Antiquarian Book Fair and readings throughout the day plus a panel discussion on publishing with writer Charles Fernyhough, agent Robert Kirby (Peters, Fraser and Dunlop), Debbie Taylor (editor of Mslexia magazine), Neil Astley (editor of Bloodaxe Books) and Fiona Stewart (editorial director of the Citron Press).
From 12 – 5pm. Panel debate at 3pm Bishop Auckland Town Hall, £3.00 (£2.00 conc).
FRIDAY 23 JUNE
Jamming Sound Against Idea
A Basil Bunting Centenary EventAcclaimed poet Roy Fisher is joined by two of the region’s brightest guitarist duos, James Birkett & Rod Sinclair
7.30pm. Music School, Palace Green. £6.00 (£4.00 conc), also covers admission to GATHERING OF VOICES on 24 June and GLADLY TO THE HILLS on 25 June.
SATURDAY 24 JUNE
The Pious Cat
A Basil Bunting Centenary EventThor Ewing tells Bunting’s story of a Persian Cat, for children. Beware! Strong cat language.
10.30pm. Alington House, North Bailey. Free
Reading Writing
A Basil Bunting Centenary EventA performance by Tom Raworth, the rapid-fire doyen of English poetry readers
12 noon. Alington House, North Bailey
A Gathering of Voices
A Basil Bunting Centenary EventReadings from Gael Turnbull and Harriet Tarlo both distinguished and original poetic voices.
6.30pm. Waterstone’s, Saddler Street. £2.50 (£1.50 concessions)
SUNDAY 25 JUNE
Sharp Study and Long Toil
A Basil Bunting Centenary EventColpitts Poetry and the Basil Bunting Poetry Centre introduce discussions and short presentations on aspects of Bunting’s work.
1.00pm. Alington House, North Bailey. Free
Gladly to the Hills
A Basil Bunting Centenary EventReadings from upland poets TOM PICKARD and COLIN SIMMS who are currently collaborating on a work entitled Lyrical Badlads.
5.30pm. Waterstone’s, Saddler Street. £2.50 (£1.50 conc.) available at the door.
WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE – SATURDAY 1 JULY
New College Durham present
Dysmorphia
written by Peter Straughan, directed by Jenny LinghamGreek legend tells us, that so powerful was his music, that Orpheus, the divine artist, managed to win his lost love back from death. All he had to do was leave the Underworld, and not turn back. At the very threshold of Hades, he looked back.
Dysmorphia has been specially commissioned the Performing Arts Department of New College and will be produced and performed by the students.
8.00pm. The Drama Studio, New College Durham, Framwellgate Moor Centre. £3.50 (£2.50 concs) Tel: 0191 375 4341
(Preview performance is on Wednesday, Opening Night is Thursday)
1 JUNE– 31 JULY
Basil Bunting, Northern Poet
A centenary exhibition which includes manuscripts, drafts, letters and poems.
Durham University Library, Palace Green
Monday – Friday 9.00am – 5.00pm. Admission Free
Tel: 0191 374 3032 for details
