Northern celebrates the literary north with Manchester Literature Festival
Northern has linked up with Manchester Literature Festival (MLF) in an exciting partnership which celebrates the literary heritage of the north.
The partnership will see the commissioning of a poem inspired by a journey along the Manchester to Hebden Bridge line by award-winning poet Helen Mort, and two literary trails created from Manchester, the newly-awarded UNESCO City of Literature.
The downloadable trails – one will take people on a tour of Manchester’s literary hot-spots and the other the literary journey from the city to Hebden Bridge, once home to Ted Hughes – and the poems will be showcased at a launch event on a Northern train later this Spring.
Northern’s Regional Director, Liam Sumpter said: “We’re excited to have teamed up with Manchester Literature Festival to celebrate the rich literary heritage of the north. The partnership will see us working together to showcase the north and bring to life the work of talented writers from the region.
“People come from across the north to attend the many different events which form this hugely successful festival and Northern plays a key role getting them there, so we’re delighted to be taking part in this year’s programme. A big part of our marketing is celebrating everything the north has to offer and the Manchester Literature Festival is a great example of this.”
Cathy Bolton from Manchester Literature Festival said: “Now in its 13th year, MLF brings the world’s leading authors to Manchester, providing an opportunity for people to meet their literary heroes and discover new ones. With many of our guests travelling to events by rail we are delighted to be working with Northern on this exciting project, celebrating the landscapes of Manchester and the Calder Valley which have inspired an array of world re-known writers from Elizabeth Gaskell and Anthony Burgess to Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, and continue to shape some of our most promising writers of today.”
The MLF sponsorship is part of Northern’s We Are Northern campaign which celebrates everything the north of England has to offer. Playing a vital role by connecting hundreds of thousands of people to work, leisure, education and more every week, Northern’s footprint covers some of the most celebrated regions in the UK.
The trails will be available on an illustrated map from the Northern website. Further details about other Northern Train Trails are available to be downloaded at www.northernrailway.co.uk/walks
Contact Information
Glyn Hellam
Media Manager
Northern
01904 568652
07795 008693
Glyn.Hellam@northernrailway.co.uk
@northern_pr
Notes to editors
About the MLF
Manchester Literature Festival was founded in 2006 and grew out of its successful predecessor Manchester Poetry Festival. Presenting 80 events at prestigious and unusual venues across the city, the annual festival attracts an audience of over 13,000 people from across the region and beyond.
Over the past decade, MLF has featured many of the biggest names in literary fiction and spoken word from across the globe, including Martin Amis, Simon Armitage, Margaret Atwood, Kate Atkinson, Malorie Blackman, William Boyd, Tracy Chevalier, Roddy Doyle, Margaret Drabble, Carol Ann Duffy, Helen Dunmore, Anne Enright, Helen Fielding, Neil Gaiman, Seamus Heaney, Alan Hollinghurst, Howard Jacobson, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Armistead Maupin, Eimear McBride, Val McDermid, David Mitchell, Walter Mosley, Andrew Motion, Jo Nesbo, Patrick Ness, Audrey Niffenegger, Ben Okri, Arundhati Roy, Kamila Shamsie, Anita Shreve, Lionel Shriver, Kate Tempest, Colm Toíbín, Rose Tremain, Joanna Trollope, Sarah Waters, Fay Weldon, Jeanette Winterson, and Xinran.
This year’s festival will take place 5 – 21 October 2018. Tickets go on sale from early August - to find out more and book tickets for special trailblazer events, please visit www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk
Manchester Literature Festival receives public funding from Arts Council England and Manchester City Council, and the University of Manchester is its Higher Education Partner.
About Helen Mort
Helen Mort has published two collections of poetry with Chatto & Windus, Division Street (winner of the Fenton Aldeburgh Prize, shortlisted for the Costa Prize and T.S. Eliot Prize) and No Map Could Show Them. Her first novel Black Car Burning is forthcoming in 2019. Her play Medusa is toured with Proper Job Theatre Company in autumn 2017, and her short story collection Exire is forthcoming from Wrecking Ball Press. She joined the Manchester Writing School as Lecturer in Creative Writing in September 2016.
For more information please contact Sophie Hayes at MCG PR on 0113 307 0113 or sophie.hayes@mcgpr.co.uk