The book is the result of creating writing workshops that have been running across the UK from October 2011 to March this year. In Manchester, a group of adults from Iran, Zimbabwe, China, Rwanda and beyond have been working alongside acclaimed poet and author, John Siddique to produce their contribution to the book.

Big Writing for a Small World in Manchester is organized by English PEN with partnership support from Community Arts North West as part of their Exodus Greater Manchester Refugee Arts programme. The project was funded by John Lyon’s Charity and the European Commission Representation in the United Kingdom.

Is multiculturalism the new whipping boy for the economic crisis or has it really failed? Does it undermine western values? What are western values and what does it mean to be British? Is David Cameron’s ‘Muscular Liberalism’ the answer, or will it lead to a new ‘Powellism’? Join the debate.

Benjamin Zephaniah is an award-winning performance poet, playwright, children’s author and political commentator. In 1987 his nomination for a Fellowship in Poetry at Cambridge, was greeted by the Sun headline ‘Would you let your daughter marry this man?’. He has since received 16 honorary doctorates from English universities, but famously refused to accept a nomination for an OBE in 2003. He is currently chair of Creative Writing at Brunel University. He was voted Britain’s third favourite poet of all time (after T.S. Eliot and John Donne) in a BBC poll in 2009.

• Marius Kociejowski, poet, essayist and travel writer, lives in London. He has published four collections of poetry, Coast, Doctor Honoris Causa, Music’s Bride and So Dance the Lords of Language – poems 1975-200. Most recently, he has published The Street Philosopher and the Holy Fool: A Syrian Journey, The Pigeon Wars of Damascus, and an anthology, Syria through Writers’ Eyes. A collection of short prose pieces, essays and feuilletons, The Pebble Chance will be published in 2014) and he has recently he completed a new, as yet unpublished, book, God’s Zoo, a record of a world journey through London, through its exile and émigré artists, writers and musicians.
• Janine Pinion is based in Wirral, Merseyside. She moved from Belfast to study at Liverpool College of Art and has exhibited in the North West and Ireland. She has had poems published in magazines and anthologies, such as Ambit, Iota, Interpreters House, Smoke. Driftwood published her pamphlet in 2003 and she is currently writing a full collection. Janine teaches in higher education and mental health. Her poetry has been described as visual and enticing, based on subjects such as an Irish childhood, missing people and postcards of modern life.
• Jeremy Over was born in Leeds in 1961. He studied law at Leeds University and now lives near Cockermouth in Cumbria, where he works as a policy adviser for the Department for Work and Pensions. His poetry was first published in New Poetries II (Carcanet, 1999). His first collection was A Little Bit of Bread and No Cheese (Carcanet, 2001). His second collection, Deceiving Wild Creatures, was published in 2009.
  ‘Deeply enjoyable … hilarious’: John Hartley Williams, Poetry London; ‘a menthol lozenge on the confectionery stall of modern poetry’: Vic Allen, The North.

• Jinny Shaw is an oboist in the Hallé Orchestra. She has written music for many collaborative projects including sound installations and new music for the artists Mary Husted, Katharine Dowson & Ivan Leudar. She has written music for the blackboard drawings of Rudolf Steiner and for poets Len Evans & Rachel Mann. She has played her music in Canada, Switzerland and throughout the UK. She and her group will play the oboe d’amore, violin, viola & cello.

Colm Tóibín and Paul Durcan will read from new work at Professor Tóibín’s final Manchester event. Like Colm Tóibín, Paul Durcan is one of Ireland’s foremost writers and is renowned as both an outspoken critic of his native country and as a chronicler of its emergence from the repressions of the 1950s to the contradictions of the present day. His first book, Endsville (1967), has been followed by more than twenty others. Paul Durcan’s 22nd collection of poetry, Praise In Which I Live And Move And Have My Being is published in April 2012 by Harvill Secker. More information and booking here. Presented in partnership with the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester.

• Tod’s finest Sean Kavanagh – existential meaderings & other guff
• fearless Sarah Corbett – poetry as white-knuckle ride
• headlining – the wonderful internationally acclaimed John Siddique ‘Rebellious by nature, pure at heart.’

Get there early to get a seat and get on the open mic list – limited places!
Magic Words is now taking place on the ground floor which is level in at street level however the toilets are down a flight of stairs and unfortunately not wheelchair accessible. Email for more info.

At The Tudor Open Mic people crowd in to listen to bawling, drunken, old, young, new and subtle poets. Some funny, some melancholy, some political and some absurd. Come on down, all welcome!

• Sandra J Whetham- Amy Winehouse tribute
  
• Sarah Pritchard – travels of an eNgLiSh AlIeN photo exhibition
  
• Belly dancing by Debbie Busby
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Who: Creative practitioners, cultural venues, teachers, commissioners and consumers.

• A highly interactive market place event designed to shine a spotlight on creative learning and excellent teaching.
• A showcase and platform to profile creative practitioners and the creative learning opportunities offered by the city’s cultural venues.
• A networking opportunity for cultural producers and consumers.
• Why: Because we all need to reflect upon our practice in order to improve what we do and we can do that so much better if we learn from each other.

Come along and share in the wealth of ideas and opportunities, whether you are an individual looking to enhance your own practice, or a teacher looking for ideas to inspire your pupils, there will be something for you.

We run Story Groups for adults aged 18+ to have a go at storytelling, writing activities and workshops, meet writers and poets and, most importantly, have loads of fun!We will also run a variety of mini projects, publish a quarterly magazine and hold annual writing festivals over the next three years. If you would like to get involved in the project, simply come along to a story group

Dr Gail Ashton -
a poet, and also an expert in mediaeval literature.Widely published, including in the Mirror.

For more information about our guests:

• Tsareena Wimbush
• Tony Ward
• Martin Christie
• Jeffarama (one half of A Means to An End)
• Andy Nicholson (one half of A Means to An End)
• Headliners: The Outer Party

• Steven Vickers
• Rebecca Audra Smith
• Shirley May
• All this and your host Rod Tame will try to not get in the way too much!

With Lemn Sissay and Chanje Kunda, part of RAW 12 Rhythm And Words Festival 2012, presented by Tell Us Another One & Cartwheel Arts.

Scribble Festival – our next big celebration as part of the “Tell Us Another One” project – is a one day event involving a number of inspiring daytime workshops and an evening of fabulous readings and performances, including Chanje Kunda, Dominic Berry and Lemn Sissay.

Rhythm is the theme this year and various inspiring rhythmical workshops will be run by artists including Shamshad Khan, Anjum Malik, Steve Garside, Tony Walsh, Helen Clare and Chanje Kunda.

The evening performance will be a great chance to catch an established poet such as Lemn Sissay in a lovely intimate setting and tickets for this part of the event will cost £8 – available from Cartwheel Arts.

A conference ticket entitles you to buffet lunches on all three days of the conference, a wine reception, a performance of the Clockwork Orange songs by Anthony Burgess, and discounted admission to three film screenings at the Cornerhouse cinema. Please let us know in advance if you would like to attend the films, so that we can reserve tickets for you.

Celebrated for their unique take on classic texts, Filter and Lyric Hammersmith Artistic Director Sean Holmes reunite, following the success of THREE SISTERS and the smash-hit TWELFTH NIGHT, to remix and rework Shakespeare’s magical
exploration of the disruptive power of love.