What's On - Event Details


York Walk - A Guided Stroll Through Literary York

Date:    Thursday 29 March
Time:    10.30am
Venue: Meet at Museum Garden Gates, Museum Street
Cost:   £5.50 adults, £5 Yorkcard, students and disabled.
Info/Booking: Tickets available from Visit York, Museum Street, York 01904 550099
A fascinating look at authors and books inspired by York from Anglo Saxon Alcuin to the Brontes, Dickens and Robinson Crusoe; and, from more modern times, Kate Atkinson. The tour includes a visit to the birthplace of W H Auden. A fascinating glimpse into York’s literary past and present.



Neil Hanson - Escape From Germany: The Greatest POW Break-out of the First World War

Date:    Thursday 29 March
Time:    6.00pm
Venue: Waterstones
Cost:    Free of charge
Info/Booking:  01904 628740
Neil Hanson is an acclaimed writer of popular history, with 8 books to his name. The Confi dent Hope of A Miracle told the story of England’s defeat of the Spanish Armada while The Dreadful Judgment looked at the great fire of London. As well as being in demand as a ghost writer, Neil is currently royal literary fellow at York St John
University. At this event, Neil will talk his book Escape from Germany, a thrilling tale of courage and resilience from World War I. Audience questions welcome.



NT Live: She Stoops To Conquer

Date:    Thursday 29 March
Time:   7.00pm
Venue: City Screen, Coney Street
Cost:   £15.00
Info/Booking:  Box Office 0871 902 5726 Click here for event page on City Screen website
To come to my house, to call for what he likes, to turn me out of my own chair, to insult the family, to order his servants to get drunk, and then to tell me, “This house is mine, sir”. By all that’s impudent, it makes me laugh…
Hardcastle, a man of substance, looks forward to acquainting his daughter with his old pal’s son, with a view to marriage. But thanks to playboy Lumpkin, he’s mistaken by his prospective son-in-law for an innkeeper, and his daughter for the local barmaid. One of the great comedies of the English language, Goldsmith’s She Stoops To Conquer is a celebration of chaos, courtship and the dysfunctional family.



Ian McMillan & Andrew McMillan

Date:    Thursday 29 March
Time:    8.30pm
Venue: City Screen, Coney Street
Cost:   £10.00
Info/Booking:  Box Office 0871 902 5726 Click here for event page on City Screen Basement website
We’re delighted to welcome Ian McMillan, poet, broadcaster, raconteur and champion of the spoken word to York Literature Festival 2012. Ian will be joined by his son Andrew McMillan. Both will read from their poetry. Don’t miss this sparkling evening of wit, words and Yorkshire wisdom. Early booking recommended.



York Amnesty International Presents Ayo Akinfe - Fuelling The Delta Fires

Date:    Friday 30 March
Time:   7.30pm
Venue: Bar Convent, 17 Blossom Street
Cost:    £4.00
Info/Booking:  Email: yorkamnestyuk@gmail.com
Ayo Akinfe is a London-based journalist who has worked as a magazine and newspaper editor for the last 20 years. He was born in Manchester but spent his formative years in Nigeria where he witnessed the horrors that poverty, an unfair trading environment, under-development, corruption and mismanagement visits on African countries.
After working in journalism for 19 years, Ayo decided to switch to book writing. Fuelling the Delta Fires is one of a series of novels aimed at highlighting Africa’s sorry plight and the misleading image peddled about her. Based on the real life situation in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, Fuelling the Delta Fires is an expose and action adventure novel.
In this talk for York’s Amnesty International, Ayo discusses the continuing turmoil in the world’s sixth largest crude oil exporter.



Yorkshire Voices - in Association with York Poetry Society: Oz Hardwick, Pat Borthwick & Ian Duhig

Date:    Friday 30 March
Time:    7.30pm - 10.00pm
Venue: Jacob’s Well, Trinity Lane
Cost:   £5 / £3.50 for York Poetry Society Members.
Info/Booking:  Pay on the door
Oz Hardwick is a York-based writer, photographer and musician, who has published three well received poetry collections, most recently The Illuminated Dreamer (Oversteps, 2010). He is Professor of English at Leeds Trinity University College, where he is Programme Leader for English and Writing.
Pat Borthwick is the Stanza Rep for Rural Yorkshire. She has three full length collections and prizes include the Amnesty International Human Rights prize and the 2011 Keats-Shelley Poetry Award. She is currently Writer in Residence for the RSPB at Bempton Cliffs.
Ian Duhig has written six books of poetry, most recently Pandorama (Picador, 2010). Duhig has won the Forward Best Poem Prize once, the National Poetry Competition twice and been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize three times. He is widely regarded by as one of the UK’s finest poets.



Souvenir D’Anne Frank

Date:   Friday 30 - Saturday 31 March
Time:    7.30pm
Venue: York Theatre Royal
Cost:    £12 - £20, £7 (Students and under-25s)
Info/Booking:  York Theatre Royal Box Office 01904 623568
A young Japanese girl journeys into a magical landscape of dreams and memories in the premiere tour of this
original work which celebrates the life of Anne Frank.
The live music of a piano trio, woven with song and words drawn from Anne’s extraordinary diary, bring East and West together in a haunting theatrical fusion that will both move and inspire.



Telltale Tent: Bringing Stories to Life. Inspire your children with storytelling and drama!

Date:    Saturday 31 March
Time:    Show 1 10.00am, show 2 11.00am
Venue: Café No. 68, Gillygate (The Tent will be in the café’s garden)
Cost:    £3.00
Step inside York’s magical, mobile story venue, the Telltale Tent. Find a cushion and listen to a wonderful story, then bring it to life by dressing up, moving to music and acting out the characters and their world through drama and play. The tent helps to build confidence and self-esteem, improve communication skills, inspire interest in language and ignite the imagination.



Poetry: Shape and form, with Andrew McMillan

Date:    Saturday 31 March
Time:    10.30am - 3.00pm
Venue: York Art Gallery
Cost:   £15
Info/Booking: York Museums Trust 01904 650333
An inspiring writing workshop with poet Andrew McMillan. Andrew will help participants to explore the shape and form of poetry, inspired by Gordon Baldwin’s abstract sculptures. Andrew McMillan is one of the “poets who will dominate UK poetry in years to come” according to the seminal new anthology The Salt Book of Younger Poets. His debut pamphlet, every salt advance, was published in 2009, and was dubbed a “delightfully imaginative debut”. Andrew has held residencies nationwide from Dorset to the South Pennines to Newcastle and recently completed a commission for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad which was subsequently featured on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.



Matt Haig: To Be A Cat

Date:    Saturday 31 March
Time:    3.00pm
Venue: Waterstones
Cost:    Free
Info/Booking:   01904 628740
Matt Haig is the author of 3 novels, including the bestselling The Radleys, about Vampires living in Bishopthorpe.
At this event, Matt will sign copies of his new book for children, To Be A Cat, to be published in March 2012.
To Be A Cat follows the story of Barney Willow. Barney thinks life couldn’t get any worse. He’s weedy, with sticky-out ears. Horrible Gavin Needle loves tormenting him - Barney has no idea why. And headteacher-from-hell Miss Whipmire seems determined to make every second of Barney’s existence a complete misery! Worst of all, Dad has been missing for almost a year, and there’s no sign of him ever coming home.
Matt will sign copies of To Be A Cat and talk to members of the public about writing.



Tony Benn & Roy Bailey: The Writing on The Wall

Date:    Saturday 31 March
Time:    5.00pm - 7.00pm
Venue: Temple Hall, York St John University
Cost:    £18.50
Info/Booking:  York Theatre Royal Box Office 01904 623568
Another chance to see a uniquely powerful show.
Tony Benn, Politician, Writer, Broadcaster and campaigner, and Roy Bailey, folk singer, perform their moving history of dissent in words and music. The Writing on The Wall is crammed with wisdom, humour and music, fusing stories, songs and anecdotes. It has consistently toured the UK for over ten years.
Tony Benn’s stories recall memories and anecdotes from a lifetime at the forefront of British politics, illuminating and extremely funny. Roy Bailey is a truly international artist and respected in the world of folk and acoustic music. In 1998 he gave a hugely successful concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall celebrating 40 years as a performer. Tony
considers him “The greatest socialist folksinger of his generation.”



York Talent Cabaret: Words, Musicand Laughter with Anneliese Emmans Dean, Henry Raby, Rob Nightingale, Mike Barfield & Union Jill

Date:    Saturday 31 March
Time:    8.00pm - 10.00pm
Venue: Temple Hall, York St John University
Cost:    £8.00
Info/Booking: York Theatre Royal Box Office 01904 623568
There are many talented people in York - here are a few that we think deserve wider recognition.
Anneliese Emmans Dean is a performance poet based in York. She has performed at Literature Festivals and on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour.
Henry Raby is a master of the spoken word, winning second place at the Edinburgh Hammer and Tongue Slam at 2011’s Fringe. His spoken word show, Letter To The Man, will be performed in York in 2012.
Union Jill are North Yorkshire’s female acoustic duo par excellence. They have played gigs all around the north of England. Helen and Sharon continue to win fans with their songs, harmonies and banter.
Rob Nightingale writes irreverent and hilarious songs that have to be heard to be believed. Rob lives in York and performs locally.
Mike Barfield lives in York. He wrote Chris Tarrant’s gags for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and his books have included This Sceptic Isle (Ebury, 2008). He writes hilarious and offbeat jokes that sometimes rhyme.
Plus Friday Folk, Second Year York St John Performance Students will speak, sing and dance traditional and original compositions.



York Walk - A Guided Stroll Through Literary York

Date:    Sunday 1 April
Time:    10.30am
Venue: Meet at Museum Garden Gates, Museum Street
Cost:   £5.50 adults, £5 Yorkcard, students and disabled.
Info/Booking: Tickets available from Visit York, Museum Street, York 01904 550099



The Dickens Enigma - John Bowen In Conversation

Date:    Sunday 1 April
Time:    11.30am - 1.00pm
Venue: York Explore Library - Garden Room
Cost:   £4
Info/Booking:  York Theatre Royal Box Office 01904 623568
John Bowen discusses the life and work of Charles Dickens for the bicentenary of the Victorian novelist’s birth. John joined the University of York’s English department in 2005 from Keele University, where he was Professor of Modern English Literature. John is the author of Other Dickens: Pickwick to Chuzzlewit (Oxford University Press, 2000), writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement and has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, In Our Time, PM and Today. John will discuss Dickens’ life and body of work. Audience questions are welcome. Compered by Miles Salter.



Drums & Tanka

Date:    Sunday 1 April
Time:    2.00pm
Venue: Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road
Cost:   £4, £2 concessions
Info/Booking:  Tickets available from the venue 01904 466086
Kaminari Taiko drumming group join forces with York writers Oz Hardwick and Amina Alyal to present powerful rhythms and intricate wordplay. A dynamic spectacle of words, sounds and biceps.
Kaminari Taiko is a japanese-style drumming group drawing members from North and West Yorkshire and has been playing in the local area for three years.
Taiko is an art form that reinterprets ancient shinto and buddhist drumming traditions for the modern day, and is rhythmic, dynamic, atmospheric, and visual.
Amina Alyal is a poet and a lecturer in English literature. Her interests cover Renaissance literature, poetry, drama, oratory and myth. Amina has written for music and for musical performance and is currently working on two collections of poetry.
Oz Hardwick has written three collections of poetry, including The Illuminated Dreamer (2011).



FILM - Dickens Before Sound (Introduced by Andrew Higson)

Date:    Sunday 1 April
Time:    5.30pm (Running time : 102 minutes including talk)
Venue: City Screen, Coney Street
Cost:    Adults £8.20, Members £6.20
Info/Booking:  City Screen Ticket Office 0871 902 5726 Click here for event page on City Screen website
A rare chance to see silent movies films depicting some of the stories of Charles Dickens. The films, made between 1901 and 1913 in the UK or US and are: Scrooge, The Cricket on the Hearth, Oliver Twist, The Boy and the Convict, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfi eld, Pickwick Papers - The Honourable Event. The films will be introduced by Andrew Higson, head of Department of Theatre, Film and Television at The University of York.



Poetry Afternoon

Date:    Sunday 1 April
Time:    3.00pm - 5.30pm
Venue: Friargate Theatre, Friargate
Cost:    £7.00
Info/Booking:  Friargate Theatre 01904 613000
An afternoon of poetry featuring four acclaimed writers with York connections, compered by Robert Powell.
Antony Dunn has published three collections of poems, Bugs (Carcanet Oxford Poets 2009), and is working towards completion of a fourth. He has been Poet in Residence at the University of York (2006) and at Ilkley Literature Festival 2010. Antony is Assistant Director of the Bridlington Poetry Festival.
Abi Curtis’ first collection Unexpected Weather was published by Salt in 2009. It was a recipient of the Crashaw Prize and short-listed for the London Festival Fringe Poetry Award. She received an Eric Gregory Award from The Society of Authors in 2004. Her second collection is forthcoming from Salt in 2012. She lectures in Creative Writing and English Literature at York St John University.
Carole Bromley teaches Creative Writing for York University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning. Winner of many prizes, including the Bridport, she has two pamphlets with Smith / Doorstop (Unscheduled Halt, 2005 and Skylight, 2009). Her first full-length collection, A Guided Tour of the Ice House, was published in October 2011. Carole lives in York.
Jack Mapanje’s 2007 poetry collection, Beasts of Nalunga (Bloodaxe), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection. Jack was head of the Department of English at the University of Malawi when the Malawi authorities
arrested him in 1987 after his first book of poems had been banned. He was released in 1991, following an
international outcry against his incarceration. He now lives in exile in York with his family, and is currently a visiting
professor in the faculty of art at York St John University.



Pub Shorts

Date:   Sunday 1 April
Time:    4.00pm - 5.45pm
Venue: Wolfe Room, The Black Swan, Peasholme Green
Cost:    £4
Info/Booking: York Theatre Royal Box Office 01904 623568
Join Helen Cadbury and friends for some gripping new short stories from Yorkshire writers, and a panel discussion about the future of the e-book versus print in short story publishing. Writers include:
A.J. Ashworth, whose debut short story collection, Somewhere Else, or Even Here, won The Scott Prize and was published by Salt in November 2011.
Tony Dew, subsidiary prize winner of the 2010 Bridport Short Story Competition, whose memoir Rock Ahead - The Autobiography of a Rocking Horse Maker is published on Kindle.
Steve Toase, whose quick-fire flash fiction graces several online publications.
James Wall - a Bridport shortlisted short story writer from Harrogate.
Hosted by Helen Cadbury, winner of the Malton Literature Festival Short Story Prize, whose stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio Four andpublished by Ether Books for iphone and ipad.



Pennine Poets - Andrew Boobier, Josie Walsh, Pauline Kirk and Julia Deakin. Followed by ‘open
mic’ for local writers.

Date:    Sunday 1 April
Time:    6.00pm - 8.30pm
Venue: Upstairs at The Black Swan, Peasholme Green
Cost:   £4.00
Info/Booking:  York Theatre Royal Box Office 01904 623568
The Pennine Poets and York guests, followed by an ‘open mic’ celebrationto close the 2012 festival.
Andrew Boobier attended York University, gaining a 1st class degree and winning a prize for translating a French pornographic novel. His poetry collection, Reader, help me, waspublished by Graft poetry in 2008.
Josie Walsh has published two collections: Breathing Space (2004); Another Breath (2009). She is working on Breathing Still.
Pauline Kirk is a performance poet, novelist and editor of Fighting Cock Press. Ten collections of her poetry and three novels have been published: Waters of Time, The Keepers and Foul Play (written with her daughter as P J Quinn.) Her poems have also been set to music. She lives in York.
Julia Deakin teaches at the University of Bradford. The Half-Mile-High Club was a Poetry Business Competition winner and her first collection, Without A Dog, appeared in 2008. Widely published, she has read on BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please and won several first prizes, including the Yorkshire Open in 2011.
The reading will be followed by an ‘open mic’ for any writers who would like to read their work. Readers will be invited to make a small donation towards Festival Funds. Put your name down as you arrive if you would like to read then. It will be first come, first served!



The Great North Songbook - Forum

Date:    Saturday 7 April
Time:    12.30am - 3.00pm
Venue: Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate
Cost:   FREE
Info/Booking: See www.latemusic.org for concert details.
The Great North Songbook is a Late Music initiative which aims to bring together local and regional poets and composers to collaborate, promote and celebrate the work of artists from the North of England.
Chaired by Dr Abi Curtis and David Lancaster from the faculty of York St John University, the forum will initially focus on the collaborations between the composers and poets featured in the evening’ssong recital by Jeremy Huw Williams and Nigel Foster.
This will be followed by a short introduction from the Chair of the York Literature Festival, Miles Salter, with an invitation to any local/regional poets to perform readings of their work. Finally, over light refreshments, all the composers and poets will be encouraged to network as a basis for future collaborations.
All participants will be offered half-price tickets for the evening’s song recital.



Andrew Motion - Silver

Date:    Wednesday 30 May
Time:    7.30pm
Venue: York Theatre Royal
Info/Booking:  York Theatre Royal Box Office 01904 623568
Andrew Motion, acclaimed poet, biographer and ex-Poet Laureate reads from his new book, Silver, a sequel to the classic Treasure Island.