Northwest Book Highlights – February 2016
In the literary world, the month of love ushers in a spiritual guide about zombies and an examination of the body. What could be more romantic?
‘Who am I? Where do I come from? What is my purpose in life?’ These are all pertinent questions at the beginning of a cold, dark new year; questions to which Vicki Bennett and Gregor Weichbrodt sought answers in their book, The Fundamental Questions. The 500-page book is a vast compilation of internet user responses to the above queries, formatted as a new-age spirituality guide. On 17 Feb a performance will take place at The Castle, with members of the audience reading from the work. Expect pronouncements like, ‘I am into zombies, and listen to everything from metal to country.’
Jonathan Meades, famed documentarian, writer and food journalist, has written and presented on topics from Brutalism and Northern Europe to vegetarianism and pigs, which were the subject of his documentary The Truth about Porkies. His recent show The Joys of Essex explores the maligned region’s history as a home to utopian communities. The idiosyncratic presenter and author will be talking at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation on 11 Feb, as part of a series of events from Manchester Metropolitan University’s Writing School.
A return trip to the Burgess Foundation is due at the month’s close, as Japanese authors Takashi Hiraide and Kyoko Yoshida debate the current state of Japanese literature 29 Feb. Hiraide’s latest work, The Guest Cat, a New York Times bestseller, sees a flagging marriage revitalised by the appearance of a stray cat and has been described as ‘measured and precise.’ Yoshida’s short story collection, Disorientalism, contains 19 surrealist short stories, noted as humorous, weird, nightmarish and human, in turn.
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Related:
Gender outlaw Kate Bornstein on Queer Contact
Shuntaro Tanikawa, one of Japan's best-kept literary secrets
Make a note in the diary: February is LGBT History Month. Contact Theatre is marking the occasion with Queer Contact, an 11-day series of events celebrating LGBT arts and culture, beginning on 4 Feb. In St Chrysostom’s Church, playwright Jo Clifford performs in The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven, which sees biblical tales retold by a transgender Jesus (14 Feb, 3pm and 8pm). And, at HOME, the Greek myth of Icarus is re-imagined, in outer space, and given a Philip Glass score in AL and AL’s Icarus at the Edge of Time (6 Feb, 8pm).
On 17 Feb at The Bluecoat, two poets, Andrew McMillan and Rebecca Goss, will be reading and discussing their recent collections, which share a concern with writing the body. Andrew McMillan won the 2015 Guardian First Book Award for his collection Physical, which is set in the gyms, locker rooms and urinals of a Northern industrial city and explores the male form, anxieties about masculinity and gay love. Rebecca Goss’s Her Birth was shortlisted for the Forward Prize, and details her emotions surrounding the birth and death of her daughter, who suffered an incurable heart condition.
Elsewhere, naturalist and author Helen MacDonald speaks at the Martin Harris Centre on 29 Feb. When MacDonald’s father died, she committed to becoming a keeper and trainer of goshawks, a decision she credits with helping lift her from severe depression. Her memoir of the period, H is for Hawk, which won the Samuel Johnson Prize, details her relationship with the goshawk and her mourning for her father. It also weaves in the biography of TH White, who similarly sought solace in hawkery, attempting and failing to train a goshawk by Medieval methods.
Vicki Bennett and Gregor Weichbrodt, The Castle Hotel, Manchester, 17 Feb, 7pm, free, otherroom.org
Jonathan Meades, International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester, 11 Feb, 7pm, free, anthonyburgess.org
Takashi Hiraide and Kyoko Yoshida, International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester, 29 Feb, 7pm, free, anthonyburgess.org
Queer Contact Festival, Contact and various venues, Manchester, 4 Feb-14 Feb, times and prices vary, contactmcr.com
LJMU Presents: Writing the Body, The Bluecoat, Liverpool, 17 Feb, 6pm, £3(£2), thebluecoat.org.uk
Helen MacDonald in conversation with Jeanette Winterson, Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama, Manchester, 29 Feb, 6.30pm, £10 (£8), martinharriscentre.manchester.ac.uk