The four year celebration of Fly on the Wall Press invites all members of the public both new and much-loved to be a part of our Christmas antics at Manchester Central Library.

There will be two rooms in the library’s performance space. One will be dedicated to workshops run by Fly on the Wall Press authors (paid, sign up in advance), the other a free space with book tables (FOTW books and publisher friends announced below) and a performance space, with an all day running schedule of poets and fiction writers.

We will be running a raffle for the chance to win a selection of free books and a competition for best dressed Christmas-themed outfit!

At the end of the day there will be a short talk from Managing Director of Fly on the Wall Press, Isabelle Kenyon, and a film.

Detail to be added as events develop but current running order of the afternoon…

Room 1:

Publisher tables: Saraband, Young Identity, Stairwell Books, Northodox, Hidden Voice Publishing, Fly on the Wall Press and Fawn Press.

1.30-1.45pm Fat Roland and David Hartley bring spoken word night ‘Bad Language’ vibes and ‘Fauna’ (longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize) has an outing!

1.45-1.55pm Jo Bratten performs poetry from ‘Climacteric’, an August 2022 chapbook

1.55-2.05pm Kevin Crowe performs from short story collection ‘No Home In This World’, a 2022 book

2.05-2.15pm – Manchester award-winning publisher Saraband has a special appearance with author Adam Farrer

2.15-2.20pm – Bethany Rivers performs from 2019 chapbook, ‘the sea refuses no river’

2.20-2.40pm – Mancunian Ways Anthology: Performance medley from contributors Penny Sharman, Alicia Fitton, Fiona Boylan, David Keyworth, Joseph Darlington, Sarah Pritchard

2.40-2.50pm – Claire HM performs from ‘How To Bring Him Back’, part of our 2021 shorts season

2.50pm- 3.00pm Tom McColl reads from ‘Grenade Genie’, a 2020 full poetry collection

3.10-3.20pm Louise Finnigan performs from ‘Muscle and Mouth’, part of our 2021 shorts season

3.20pm – 3.30pm Demos Rising Anthology: Dipika Mummery, Caitlin Kendall

3.30-3.40pm Jiye Lee performs from ‘Aftereffects’

(Everyone now bundled into the other room for FOTW film showcase and slides – also includes prizes for best dressed Xmas outfit and raffle being drawn)

Room 2:

1.35pm – 2.15pm Ruth Brandt Workshop: ‘Starting with Place’ (Suitable for both fiction writers and poets! Bring a pen and paper.) Starting with Place – Places inspire us, evoke emotions and memories, restrict our behaviour, create conflict – core elements of stories and poems. Using written exercises, this workshop will help you investigate place as the starting point for your writing.

2.25pm – 3.05pm Graeme Hall and Clare Reddaway Workshop on building character (Come with a character you are currently working on developing for these exercises!) Writing is all about great characters, right? Clare will explore ways to deepen your characters’ worlds and make them more three dimensional.

3.15-3.35pm Publisher Drop In (20 mins) – Space for one writer to pre-book in advance to sit down with Isabelle Kenyon and discuss their work in progress for advice on synopsis, cover letter and first page (for novelists) or structure, imagery and narrative arc development for poets (send 10 poem sample in advance for discussion)

3.45pm – 4.10pm – FREE – Isabelle Kenyon talk and short film featuring FOTW’s international authors

4.10-4.30pm – last chance to buy books before we close! 🙂