Literature Works

Literature Works The South West's Literature development agency. We commission work, create development opportunities and cultivate creative communities.

Don't forget, we're looking for Young City Laureates in both Plymouth (linking up with Plymouth Culture) and in Exeter, ...
01/06/2026

Don't forget, we're looking for Young City Laureates in both Plymouth (linking up with Plymouth Culture) and in Exeter, a UNESCO City of Literature (Exeter Unesco City of Literature) - both deeply creative cities with strong writing communities, busy with bookish activity.

The Young City Laureates will write new commissions for special events, collaborate with local groups and organisations, and perform their work. With our support, they will find new ways to connect with the communities in these cities and represent the voice of young people.

Spread the word as both opportunities, open to young writers aged 14-19 in these cities, close in July. Here are the crucial dates and links for more details:

📅 Plymouth Young City Laureate: apply by midday on Monday 6th July
https://literatureworks.org.uk/plymouth-young-city-laureate-2026-27-the-search-is-on/
📅 Exeter Young City Laureate: apply by midday Wednesday 15th July.
https://literatureworks.org.uk/exeter-young-city-laureate-2026-27-the-search-has-begun/

Join Fiona Robertson next week for these 'pay what you can' events at Broadstone Library (BCP Libraries) - part of the ...
27/05/2026

Join Fiona Robertson next week for these 'pay what you can' events at Broadstone Library (BCP Libraries) - part of the Words Alive in Libraries tour.

📍 Broadstone Library
📅 3 June 2026
🕚 11am-12.30pm Creative Writing Workshop
🕑 2-3pm Author talk

About Fiona Robertson and Stone Lands:

Fiona Robertson is Publisher of Watkins and Nourish where she commissions books about ancient wisdom, folklore, herbalism, witchcraft and the occult etc. She has a deep interest in history of all sorts with a BA in Modern History from The Queen’s College, Oxford, and an MA in South Asian Studies from SOAS. She is a long-standing megalith enthusiast.

Stone Lands combines folklore, history and archaeology with insights from a range of interesting stones enthusiasts, from Morris dancers, dowsers and pagans to artists, musicians and walkers to archivists and archaeologists. Describing her decades long personal quest to explore the standing stones of Britain, it emphasises the wellbeing benefits that visiting ancients sites can bring, offering a way of connecting with nature, the past and ancient ways of being.

"As well as an inspiring tour of the megalithic landscapes of these isles, STONE LANDS is a human journey into grief, hope and love. It’s a fantastic book for weird walkers and megalith-obsessives alike, richly illustrated with stunning black and white line drawings." - Weird Walk Book Cult

Find out more about all the authors and events involved in the tour and book your tickets (pay what you decide) here: https://literatureworks.org.uk/projects/words-alive-in-libraries/

Words Alive In Libraries is a partnership between Literature Works and South West Regional Library Services and it's funded by an Arts Council England project grant.

26/05/2026

Another monthly Literature Works newsletter coming next week, with another great roundup of events and opportunities for readers and writers in South West England.

Subscribe 👉🏻 bit.ly/litworksmonthly

📢 JUST ANNOUNCEDOn Saturday 20th June, the WORDS ALIVE IN LIBRARIES tour reaches Barnstaple Library (Libraries Unlimite...
26/05/2026

📢 JUST ANNOUNCED

On Saturday 20th June, the WORDS ALIVE IN LIBRARIES tour reaches Barnstaple Library (Libraries Unlimited) for events with Michael Malay, who won The Wainwright Prize for his memoir LATE LIGHT (read more about this book below). Pay what you can and book now to join Michael for:

🕝 10.30am-12pm Nature Writing Workshop https://www.ticketsource.com/whats-on/barnstaple/barnstaple-library/nature-writing-workshop-with-michael-malay-at-barnstaple-library/e-glzbgq
🕔 2-3pm Author talk https://www.ticketsource.com/whats-on/barnstaple/barnstaple-library/author-event-michael-malay-at-barnstaple-library/e-glzbxm

Tickets here:

Late Light is the story of Michael Malay's own journey, an Indonesian Australian making a home for himself in England and finding strange parallels between his life and the lives of the animals he examines. Mixing natural history with memoir, this book explores the mystery of our animal neighbours, in all their richness and variety. It is about the wonder these animals inspired in our ancestors, the hope they inspire in us, and the joy they might still hold for our children.

Late Light is about migration, belonging and extinction. Through the close examination of four particular 'unloved' animals - eels, moths, crickets and mussels - Michael Malay tells the story of the economic, political and cultural events that have shaped the modern landscape of Britain.

For readers of Robert Macfarlane, Raynor Winn and Helen Macdonald, Late Light is a rich blend of memoir, natural history, nature writing, and a meditation on being and belonging, from a vibrant new voice.

About Michael:

Michael Malay is a teacher and writer based in Bristol. He spent his early years in Jakarta, Indonesia, before moving to Australia with his family at the age of ten. He is the author of Late Light, a book about migration, belonging and extinction, as well as an academic monograph, The Figure of the Animal in Modern and Contemporary Poetry. He is currently working on a book about John Berger.

Word Space, our online talent development programme for emerging writers in South West England, is underway for 2026-27....
22/05/2026

Word Space, our online talent development programme for emerging writers in South West England, is underway for 2026-27. The writers in the new cohort have already got together for their first Industry Insight session and a group meet-up.

Of course, one of the key elements of Word Space is the mentoring - and we are proud to this year to have eight fantastic mentors, who bring an incredible depth of talent and breadth of experience to the programme, as they work closely with the writers to help to achieve their goals.

The mentors are: Louisa Adjoa Parker, Virginia Baily, Heather Child, Susanna Crossman, Lily Dunn, Lucy Holland, Davina Quinlivan, and Greta Stoddart.

Find out more about the writers, mentors and partner organisations involved with Word Space 2025-26 on the Literature Works website:
https://literatureworks.org.uk/word-space-2026-27/

Next week on Thursday 28th May, the WORDS ALIVE IN LIBRARIES tour reaches Weymouth Library for events with Michael Malay...
21/05/2026

Next week on Thursday 28th May, the WORDS ALIVE IN LIBRARIES tour reaches Weymouth Library for events with Michael Malay - The Wainwright Prize winner for his acclaimed memoir LATE LIGHT. Pay what you can and book now to join Michael for:
🕝 2.30-4pm Creative Writing Workshop
🕔 5-6pm Author talk

About Michael:

Michael Malay is a teacher and writer based in Bristol. He spent his early years in Jakarta, Indonesia, before moving to Australia with his family at the age of ten. He is the author of Late Light, a book about migration, belonging and extinction, as well as an academic monograph, The Figure of the Animal in Modern and Contemporary Poetry. He is currently working on a book about John Berger.

Not long left to apply for Raise the Bar's 2026 Writing Retreats - these are great opportunities to learn writing and ca...
20/05/2026

Not long left to apply for Raise the Bar's 2026 Writing Retreats - these are great opportunities to learn writing and career skills from world-class tutors. Courses are designed specifically for all levels, emerging+ and post-emerging poets. Apply by 9pm on 31st May...

Coming up soon, as the WORDS ALIVE IN LIBRARIES tour reaches North Somerset... ➡️📍 The Campus, Weston-super-Mare, BS24 ...
20/05/2026

Coming up soon, as the WORDS ALIVE IN LIBRARIES tour reaches North Somerset... ➡️

📍 The Campus, Weston-super-Mare, BS24 7DX (North Somerset Libraries)
📅 Thursday 4th June 2026

🕑 2pm-3.30pm Creative Writing Workshop with Davina Quinlivan
🕟 4.30pm-5.30pm Davina Quinlivan and Lily Dunn In Conversation

Book now (pay what you can) at bit.ly/wordsalive2026

About the writers:

Davina Quinlivan is a Devon-based/London-bred author and educator. She is the author of Possessions: A Memoir of Transformation in an Era of Precarity (Duckworth, 2026) and Shalimar: A Story of Place and Migration (Little Toller Books, 2022). She has worked in and out of academia and the Arts for almost twenty years. She teaches Experimental and Fragmentary Life-Writing at the University of Bristol and is a Fellow in the Department of English and Creative Writing at The University of Exeter. She is currently writing her third memoir, Labyrinthine.

Dr Lily Dunn is an author, mentor and academic. Her debut nonfiction, Sins of My Father: A Daughter, A Cult, A Wild Unravelling, a memoir about the legacy of her father’s addictions (W&N) was on of The Spectator's and The Guardian's best nonfiction books of 2022. Her latest book: Into Being: The radical craft of memoir and its power to transform (MUP, 7th Oct 2025) is a hybrid memoir craft book. She is also author of a work of fiction, Shadowing the Sun.

📅 FROM OUR EVENTS CALENDAR: There's so much going in Helston for half-term (23rd-30th May), with the Story Lab pop-up fr...
20/05/2026

📅 FROM OUR EVENTS CALENDAR:

There's so much going in Helston for half-term (23rd-30th May), with the Story Lab pop-up from our friends at The Writers' Block :

"Become a Story Inventor on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 May, when the Story Lab will be arriving at Trevow! Encounter colourful characters, enchanting worlds and costumes galore and have fun creating your very own characters and stories.

Across the week, there will be a variety of workshops, events and drop-in sessions for all ages. From hidden story trails to mapping our memories, from Manga to zine-making, from poetry to postcards, from the places we love to the words that carry us home, come and discover an array of activities on your doorstep this May half-term.

Thanks to funding from Arts Council England and Cornwall Community Foundation through the Tanner Phoenix Trust lots of Helston-based organisations are already on board and we’re excited to be working together to bring a whole host of free and affordable events to the town.

Helston, your three words are calling."

➡️So much going on throughout the week including family activities, zine-making and life writing workshops... Explore more and book your tickets at trevowhelston.co.uk

And don't forget, you can submit your own literature events to our Community Events calendar to help spread the word: 🔗 bit.ly/LitWevents

📅 FROM OUR COMMUNITY EVENTS CALENDAR:Plymouth Performance Weekender📅 Saturday 23rd May🕢 6pm-10pm📍 Barbican Theatre, Ply...
14/05/2026

📅 FROM OUR COMMUNITY EVENTS CALENDAR:

Plymouth Performance Weekender
📅 Saturday 23rd May
🕢 6pm-10pm
📍 Barbican Theatre, Plymouth

Four great shows by local artists on one festival day at the Barbican Theatre. Two double bills of spoken word, dance, theatre and comedy.

Show 1: Beneath the Tracksuit & Millie Parker

06:00 PM - 06:50 PM
Beneath the Tracksuit - A Way With Words

07:00 PM - 07:50 PM
Millie Parker - On Girlhood

Show 2: Chelsea Vincent & Marina & the Diamantes

08:15 PM - 09:05 PM
Chelsea Vincent - Murder She Tried To Write

09:15 PM - 10:05 AM
Marina O'Shea - Marina and the Diamantes

➡️ You can submit your own events to our Community Events calendar to help spread the word: bit.ly/LitWevents

Address

Literature Works C/o Griffin Chartered Accountants
Plymouth
EX25AZ

Website

https://www.quaywords.org.uk/

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