Birmingham Lit Fest Presents….

"Train Cancellation" by Maeve Deegan, read by Emma Boniwell. Everything changes. For everyone.

Birmingham Lit Fest Presents presents six separate stories, all set late on the same night at Wolverhampt…

"Eight Minutes" by Doroti Polgar, read by Lisa M Billingham. You can put the world right in eight minutes, but the world never listens to you.

Birmingham Lit Fest Presents presents six separate storie…

"Apologies for Any Inconvenience" written and read by William Gallagher. Anger can keep out the cold, but not forever.

Birmingham Lit Fest Presents presents six separate stories, all set late on the s…

"The 23: 48 to Birmingham New Street" written and read by Lisa M. Billingham. We can hide from ourselves, but not from handsome strangers.

Birmingham Lit Fest Presents presents six separate stories, a…

"Departures" by Erin Oakley, read by William Gallagher. Not everyone's intended destination is at the other end of this train ride.

Birmingham Lit Fest Presents presents six separate stories, all set …

"23:48" by Maeve Deegan, read by Emma Boniwell. An eight-minute train delay is increasingly tense for one young woman -- but what has happened to her tonight?

Birmingham Lit Fest Presents presents six…

This week, we’re joined by Lucy Hannah from UNTOLD Stories, and Afghan poet Parwana Fayyaz,
who talked to festival team member Olivia Chapman. Lucy and Parwana worked on My Pen is the
Wing of a Bird, a…

This week’s episode is our specially-curated Writing from a Warzone event. The Birmingham
Literature Festival team brought together novelist Priscilla Morris, whose family fled Sarajevo during
the 1992…

This week’s episode features two people with unique insights into the UK Justice System: Wendy
Joseph KC sat on cases in the Old Bailey for decades. In that time, she also mentored young people
and tri…

This week’s episode is housing lawyer Hashi Mohamed speaking to Guest Curator Otegha Uwagba.
Hashi’s family arrived in the UK as refugees from Somalia in the 1990s, and his book A Home of One’s
Own is …

This week’s guest is one of few who – universally – get referred to as a “National Treasure”. Michael
Rosen has written over 70 books, including many of the most-read and most-loved children’s books
of…

On 9 July 2022, Writing West Midlands hosted its annual National Writers’ Conference in Birmingham, the first time back to a full programme of events since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Through…

2021: A year in review

Welcome to the last instalment of 2021’s commissioned series of writing. Each month, across the year, we have asked writers and poets to reflect on each month as it has passed.…

Writer and Professor Thomas Glave wrote our very first commissioned piece in January 2021, describing a quiet, reflective post-Christmas Brindley Place in the midst of lockdown. In December's offerin…

April 2021’s online event featured author and journalist Sathnam Sanghera discussing his latest book Empireland. In conversation with Sara Wajid, the co-CEO of the Birmingham Museum’s Trust, he discu…

Solihull based scriptwriter Annabel Brightling has written November's piece for the festival blog. In it, she reflects on the excitement of the premiere of drama SeaView at the Belgrade Theatre, a sh…

May 2021’s online live event brought together two writers whose books are rooted in the Midlands, Emma Purshouse and Lisa Blower. In conversation with author Kit de Waal, they discuss their latest no…

In June 2021, we hosted an online live event with author Caleb Azumah Nelson about his debut novel Open Water. In conversation with Birmingham Poet Laureate Casey Bailey, they talk about Caleb’s beau…

This week, bestselling novelist and acclaimed podcast host Elizabeth Day, talks to Sathnam Sanghera about her new novel Magpie. Join them as they talk about writing thrillers, and a novel that tells …

This is the Canon, written by Joan Anim-Addo, Deirdre Osborne and Kadija Sesay, is a book that aims to decolonise what we think of as the literary canon, which is all too often dominated by white aut…