• Greg Rucka is well known for not only his detective comic series but also his spy fiction with the much praised queen and country and Checkmate. His other praised detective series is Gotham Central, a series he has worked with Steve Lieber on as well. Whiteout in 1999 was nominated for the “Best Writer”, “Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team” and “Best Limited Series” Eisner Awards and in 2000 it was nominated for the “Best Graphic Album” Eisner Award.
  The Story involves a U.S. Marshall by the name of Carrie Stetko, who has been exiled to Antarctica. A murder has occurred in her jurisdiction and it’s down to her to find the killer but Antarctica is a ruthless, isolated continent where many haven’t survived.
• The second book is a collection of Spirit tales with the focus of stories involving the many “Dames” the Spirit has had the pleasure (if you would always call it that) of meeting, including Silk Satin and P’Gell. The spirit comics by Will Eisner are praised by many and are looked upon as great creative pieces of art and storytelling. The Spirit himself is the epiphany of the pulp detective fiction hero.

• Freddie Pitts of Z Silent Z will be giving us a rare acoustic showcase.
• The terrific twosome DeviousMinds return to OpenMind to drop some lyrical bombs with hip hop flair.
• Gordon Zola is known throughout the NorthWest poetry scene for his wit and cheeky charm whether he’s telling us about the women he’s known or giving us enough cheese to keep Wallace and Gromit happy for a lifetime.
• Midnight Shelley has been dazzling audiences in Yorkshire and the NorthWest with potent poetry and powerful poised delivery.
• Amphibolous is an experimental trio featuring turntables, objects & fx, and cello.
• The OpenMind Collective will be represented by Terminus Infinite, GrIm, and Ushiku Crisafulli with music, performance art and poetry celebrating our 2nd birthday loudly and proudly.

• David Gaffney is the author of three critically acclaimed flash fiction collections – Sawn-off Tales (2006), Aromabingo (2007) and Edgehill Prize-longlisted The Half-life Of Songs (2010) – and debut novel Never Never (2008). He comes from Cleator Moor in West Cumbria, and now lives in Manchester.
• Nathan Jones is a poet, performer and curator currently researching Noise,Poetics and Performance at Brunel University. He has been director at language-art agency Mercy for the last ten years, commissioning and performing in a wide range of interdisciplinary art-language works. His book Noah’s Ark was published by Henningham Family Press in 2010.
• Frank Kuppner was born in Glasgow in 1951. He has been Writer in Residence at the universities of Edinburgh, Strathclyde and Glasgow. In 1995 he won the McVitie’s Scottish Writer of the Year prize for his book Something Very Like Murder. He received a Creative Scotland Award in 2003. Carcanet have published seven books of his poetry: A Bad Day for the Sung Dynasty (Scottish Arts Council Book Award, 1984), The Intelligent Observation of Naked Women (1987), Ridiculous! Absurd! Disgusting! (1989), Everything is Strange (1994), Second Best Moments in Chinese History (1997) and What? Again? Selected Poems (2000) and A God’s Breakfast (2008) and the new title The Same Life Twice.

• Charmain Leung – A poet who specialises in an acute observation of her ordinary surroundings, which seem to be sucked into the internal representation of her poem.
• Adam Woolley – An atypical teenager frequently finding himself in awkward situations of acute social embarrassment, Adam Woolley documents his feckless waste of an existence in menial, slightly-humorous poems.
• Robin Graham – A performance poet, playwright and laughter consultant based in Manchester. Robin’s performance poetry includes some happy poems, some which are sad, some with props and some where the audience joins in.

• Helen Mort won the Manchester Young Writer Prize in 2008. In 2010, she became the youngest ever poet in residence at The Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere.
• Jenn Ashworth was featured as one of the BBC Culture Show’s Best 12 New Novelists. She has written many short stories, and her first novel, ‘A Kind of Intimacy’, was published in February 2009 and was awarded The Betty Trask Award in 2010.

The event will also feature performances by some fantastic emerging writers, who were selected through a call-out. They are:

• John Leyland
  
• Nija Dalal
  
• Anneliese Mackintosh
  
• Emma Lannie
  
• Alex Keelan
  

Wed 29th
12noon+
Thu 30th
9:30am+

Beyond the Poem

With Mandy Coe.
Apart from building a ‘set’ for performance, or a body of work for publication, the poet’s work moves forward one poem at a time. But a poem is small lens through which to view one’s own writing development. In a supportive and creative atmosphere, this course will open up new possibilities by experimenting with content, form and voice to help you recognise/celebrate/expand your existing expectations, styles and habits. Through workshop activities we will respond to contemporary poets such as Atwood, Transtromer, Les Murray, Elizabeth Bishop as well as poets such as John Gay, Robbie Burns, Rabindranath Tagore, Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson. We will read and write poems-of-witness, poems of the everyday; poetry of the surreal and sensuous. The aim is to generate new poems, whilst broadening your scope as a poet. Join us in ‘Beyond the Poem’ and surprise yourself!