More to come when I get back

Malcolm Lowry

Just off to Vancouver for Malcolm Lowry: A Centenary Celebration (July 23-25, 2009). I'll be giving a paper on sound in Lunar Caustic and flying home on his hundredth birthday, 28th July. I'll be raising a glass to him on the plane.

Manchester Book Market

Friday 17 to Sunday 19 July 2009 - St Ann’s Square, city centre Manchester

The Manchester Book Market, which first took place in Sep 2006, returns this summer as part of the Manchester International Festival for a three-day market accompanied by back-to-back performances from the cream of Manchester's spoken word scene. I'll be reading on Sunday at 3.30. See http://www.literaturenorthwest.co.uk/event/1454

Edge Hill Prizewinners' Reading

This year's winner, the very modest Chris Beckett, read alongside last year's winner, Claire Keegan, last Sunday at the Bluecoat. Claire always has some interesting things to say about the short story, especially what she calls the 'reluctant voice'. She says Irish writers are good at short stories because the Irish talk a lot without saying anything.


See my account of the build-up to the Award Ceremony at http://theshortreview.blogspot.com/. What I don't tell you there is that a certain website accidentally leaked our embargoed press release the day before the winner was announced. It was gone by that evening, but word gets round very fast these days and possibly Chris was the only person in the room who knew that he'd won. That is a genuine look of bemusement on his face the following morning.

Picture: Tim Power