WE’VE enjoyed a very busy August, and have had a great response to our new Frank Cottrell Boyce installation and we’re now looking forward to our September events.
There’s still time to buy tickets for ‘Rebooting the Brontë Way’, which takes place on Saturday, September 7 in the Old School Room in Haworth, and features our writer-in-residence Zaffar Kunial in conversation with novelist Michael Stewart.
Anyone fascinated by inspiring landscapes should enjoy the evening, and tickets cost £7/£5 or just £2 for 16-25 year olds. Book online or call 01535 640192.
As promised last time, I have news of our fantastic Festival of Women’s Writing which takes place from September 20 to 22.
This year’s festival has been programmed by novelist Kit de Waal, and explores and celebrates working-class writing.
It’s easy to assume that the Brontë sisters were reasonably wealthy middle-class women, but they lived far from the centre of literary London, and they lacked the social and family connections that often opened doors in the worlds of literature and publishing.
These geographical and social barriers still exist 170 years later, and so with this in mind Kit has programmed a range of events that support different voices.
There’s a mix of writing workshops, panel discussions, ‘in conversation’ events, and spoken word.
Friday’s evening event is very topical – ‘#MeToo, Time’s Up & Violence Against Women’ discusses the excessive amount of violence against women in fiction, and recent efforts to come up with some alternative stories. It takes place in West Lane Baptist Centre at 7.30pm and tickets cost £8.
If you fancy attending the festival with your family, then come along on Saturday afternoon to ‘Draw Along with Nadia Shireen’. Nadia is a children’s author and illustrator, and will lead a draw-along workshop perfect for 3-7 year olds.
The workshop takes place from 2pm-3pm in the Old School Room and costs just £4 per child (accompanying adults go free).
And different again is ‘Words and Stories’ on Saturday evening, which promises to be a warm and funny evening of women’s working-class stories and poetry.
Our presenters, Zena Barrie and Jo Howard, used to run the award-winning Verbose spoken word night in Manchester, and they’ve invited some of their favourite voices along to join us in Haworth.
We’re billing the evening as spoken word for people who don’t usually like spoken word, so you should be in for an entertaining night!
Tickets cost just £8 and the event takes place in West Lane Baptist Centre at 8pm. And go to our website bronte.org.uk-whats-on to see the range of events – it’s a jam-packed weekend!
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