Join us as we celebrate the launch of Lunate Vol. 2, the second print edition from Lunate, an award winning Manchester based literary journal. Editor Gary Kaill will be hosting a discussion on all things literary with Lunate contributors Adam Farrer, Stu Hennigan and Ben Pester who will also be reading from their work. This event is part of the Festival of Social Science.

Doors: 18.30, event starts: 18.45

Tickets are free but do please register your interest in advance. All attendees will receive a free copy of Lunate Vol. 2 and copies of Lunate Vol. 1 will be on sale alongside Adam, Ben, and Stu’s books. All three authors will be signing copies after the talk. If you would like a signed copy but cannot make the event, please contact us on 0161 274 3331 or manchester@blackwell.co.uk and we can arrange this for you.

About the authors:

Adam Farrer is a writer and editor based in Manchester. He has performed at a number of festivals and events including Manchester Literature Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Northern Lights Writers Conference. His work has been featured in the anthology Test Signal, in Hinterland magazine and his first book, Cold Fish Soup, a memoir in essays about the Yorkshire coast, won the NorthBound Book Award at the 2021 Northern Writers’ Awards. He edits the creative non-fiction journal The Real Story, as well as teaching writing workshops.

Stu Hennigan is a writer, poet and musician from the north of England. His debut non-fiction work Ghost Signs: poverty and the pandemic, based on his experiences delivering food parcels in Leeds, was published in June 2022 by Bluemoose books. It has been listed as one of Blackwells Best Books of 2022, and was serialised in Prospect magazine. His short fiction and poems have appeared in Lune Journal, the anthology The Middle Of A Sentence, Expat Lit, Visual Verse and others. He is currently working on a novel with the working title of False Friend, as well as several other shorter fiction and non-fiction projects.

Ben Pester’s debut short story collection Am I in the Right Place? was published in 2021 by Boiler House Press, and was long listed for the 2022 Edge Hill Prize. His work has appeared in The London Magazine, Granta, Hotel, Five Dials and elsewhere. When not writing fiction, he is a technical writer. He lives with his family in North London.

About the festival:

The Festival of Social Science is an annual celebration of research and knowledge about humans and society and celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2022. It’s an opportunity for anyone to explore topics relating to social science – from health and wellbeing to crime, equality, education and identity – through events run by researchers from UK universities. There’s no cost to attend, and most are open to everyone, though some are aimed at specific groups.

There are over 200 events across the UK, delivered by 34 universities. They’ll be running from 22 October to 13 November in a mixture of online, in-person and hybrid formats, and will include talks, performances, exhibitions, participatory events and panel debates. For most events you can book yourself a place in advance online – follow the booking link from the event listing.

A key theme for the 2022 festival is ‘my local area’. Many of our events will explore our partner universities’ own regions, from their social and economic history to their dialect, political landscape and the future of their local high streets.

The festival is led and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which supports research and training in social science subjects.