Manchester Independent Book Market Returns!

We’re really chuffed that the Manchester Independent Book Market returns later this month, on our favourite pitch in St Ann’s Square. I had a lot of fun on the Comma stall last year, with good footfall, decent sales, and many enquiries about our work – so fingers crossed it’ll be another good one (and the mariachi band playing ABBA’s ‘Fernado’ on a mobeus loop won’t be there).

Crowds at last year's Independent Book Market

Situated in the bustling St Ann’s Square, just off Deansgate, the market’s a great place to browse, grab a coffee, and listen to live readings from a selection of talented performance poets and authors.

You can also meet representatives from the North’s finest independent publishers – including Carcanet, Tindal Street, Comma Press, Route Books, Crocus, Flax Books, and Inpress. So if you’re an aspiring writer, this is a great place to make contact with publishers and put your name about.

There’ll be live readings on Friday 25th and Saturday 26th June, from 12pm – 5pm, with the likes of:

Friday -

Dominic Berry, Rosie Garland (aka Rosie Lugosi), Dave Gaffney, Jackie Hagan, Helen Thomas, Dinesh Allirajah, Paul Sutherland, Alice Lenkiewicz

Saturday -

Nick Royle, Kim Wiltshire, Zahid Hussein, Annie Clarkson, Eleanor Rees, Gift Nyoni, Chris Jam, Conrad Williams, Alicia Stubbersfield, Tim Lees, Nabila Suriya, Nick Murgatroyd, Akiel Chinelo, Edmund Prestwich, Marvin Cheeseman, Steph Pike, Lula Bruise, Polly Atkin, Conor Aylwood, Fergus Evans

Both days are compèred by the incomparable Gerry Potter.

As a reward for reading to the bottom of this post, here’s a clip of spoken word/hip-hop artists ‘Penultimate’ at last year’s book market.