Events are organised by the following people:
Sally Bavage (Acting Chair), Mary Francis (Treasurer), Doug Sandle
and Richard Wilcocks (Secretary, Website)
OUR HISTORY
Plenty of talent has come our way in the sixteen years since the first Headingley LitFest in 2008 which quickly got into gear with a poetry slam at Lawnswood School. As part of a packed and varied programme, Nicolette Jones talked about her new book on the great Victorian reformer Samuel Plimsoll, a play by Peter Spafford on the life and death from pneumonia in Headingley of Prince Alamayou of Abyssinia drew a large audience and poet James Nash compered a poetry reading in a café basement. The style was set for future years. Incidentally, we are still all volunteers.
In 2009 we had our first big headliner – Dame Beryl Bainbridge, who read from her work-in-progress (and final novel) The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress, followed in 2010 by David Peace, who spoke about his latest novel GB84, which focuses on the miners’ strike. In 2011 our principal guest was Booker Prizewinner Ben Okri and in 2012 poet Ian McMillan was wonderfully uproarious at Left Bank. In 2013 we booked the Howard Assembly Room in the city centre for a reading by poet Roger McGough. In the same year Headingley resident Kay Mellor spoke about her new television series, The Syndicate.
In 2014, a book by LitFest secretary Richard Wilcocks, Stories from the War Hospital, was launched with his play based on it, and novelist Alison Taft presided over the third annual session devoted to the work of creative writing students from Headingley and Osmondthorpe. She reappeared in 2015 in 'Yorkshire Noir', an evening devoted to crime writers. In the same year, David Robertson, the driving force behind Theatre of the Dales, a group regularly performing in the LitFest, gave a stunning performance of Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape. Trio Literati is another group of local performers, extremely talented amateurs seeming like professionals, who have been with us every year.
Children and young people have always made an important contribution, and not just when we work with poets in schools: Julian Oxley’s beautiful Florence and Jem books for pre-schoolers have launched at the LitFest, in the historic Meanwood Institute. We are currently promoting poetry-writing in primary and high schools whenever Covid restrictions permit, with James Nash and Malika Booker amongst others.
Keep up to date with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and bookmark our regular blog at https://www.headingleylitfest.blogspot.com
In 2009 we had our first big headliner – Dame Beryl Bainbridge, who read from her work-in-progress (and final novel) The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress, followed in 2010 by David Peace, who spoke about his latest novel GB84, which focuses on the miners’ strike. In 2011 our principal guest was Booker Prizewinner Ben Okri and in 2012 poet Ian McMillan was wonderfully uproarious at Left Bank. In 2013 we booked the Howard Assembly Room in the city centre for a reading by poet Roger McGough. In the same year Headingley resident Kay Mellor spoke about her new television series, The Syndicate.
In 2014, a book by LitFest secretary Richard Wilcocks, Stories from the War Hospital, was launched with his play based on it, and novelist Alison Taft presided over the third annual session devoted to the work of creative writing students from Headingley and Osmondthorpe. She reappeared in 2015 in 'Yorkshire Noir', an evening devoted to crime writers. In the same year, David Robertson, the driving force behind Theatre of the Dales, a group regularly performing in the LitFest, gave a stunning performance of Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape. Trio Literati is another group of local performers, extremely talented amateurs seeming like professionals, who have been with us every year.
Children and young people have always made an important contribution, and not just when we work with poets in schools: Julian Oxley’s beautiful Florence and Jem books for pre-schoolers have launched at the LitFest, in the historic Meanwood Institute. We are currently promoting poetry-writing in primary and high schools whenever Covid restrictions permit, with James Nash and Malika Booker amongst others.
Keep up to date with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and bookmark our regular blog at https://www.headingleylitfest.blogspot.com
