Books, authors, writing and literature

in Leicester for 2016

This is the home page for books, writers, authors, literature and written word in 2016

News just in

9th May

World Book Night success

World Book Night 2016 took place last month on 23 April, when 187,500 copies of 15 specially printed World Book Night titles were given by a network of 8000 volunteer reading enthusiasts and institutions, including prisons, homeless shelters, colleges, schools and libraries around the UK, giving books into the hands of the 36% of the UK population who don’t read for pleasure.

Here in Leicester, Arts in Leicester editor Trevor Locke gave out copies of ‘The Rotters’ Club’ by Jonathan Coe.

Ten years of Quick Reads

This year sees the launch of the 2016 Quick Reads, which set out to show that books and reading can be for everyone. Each year they commission big name authors to write short books that are specifically designed to be easy to read.  They are the same as mainstream books in every respect but are simply shorter and easier to tackle for the 1 in 6 adults of working age in the UK who find reading difficult and may never normally pick up a book. Quick Reads is run by The Reading Agency.

Find out more about World Book Night on Facebook.

Writing School

Writing School East Midlands  is offering creative writing course through to July 2016. Courses are available in Leicester on Poetry, crime fiction, writing plays, short storied, and much more besides.

There is also an open competition on poetry and short fiction.

Find out more from the Writing East Midlands website.

Cultural Exchange

A festival of ideas, insight and inspiration; Cultural eXchanges features a variety of guests and speakers from the cultural and creative industries.

Courses for writers are on the programme.

Find out more from the DMU Cultural Exchange web page.

Writers Club

The Leicester Writers Club holds regular meetings and provides opportunities for writers to meet each other.

The website for Leicester Writers Club

Meet up with other writers at Cafe Bru

on the first Tuesday of the month at Cafe Bru in Granby Street.

Hook up with Farhana Shaikh on Facebook to get more details.

Or check out @LeicesterWrites on Twitter.

Free books

World Book Night takes place on 23rd April this year and various people in Leicester will once again be handing out free books.

Last year copies of The Martian were given away and later we also reviewed the film by Ridley Scott which was based on the book.

Find out more about World Book Night on Facebook.

See the website for World Book Night 2016.

See also:

The blog of writer Trevor Locke.

Arts news in 2016

The history of music in Leicester