Blimey – was it *really* almost twelve months ago since we last blogged about the BRILLIANT Essex Book Festival?
Whaddya know – much like Carly Simon once sang: it’s Coming Around Again.
And to Sunny Colch as well.
Hurrah!
Yep, the 14th Essex Book Festival will be celebrated throughout the month of March around Britain’s Oldest Recorded – and elsewhere around the County as well, natch.
A cracking line up of workshops and venues has been published for our particular patch. Big hitters [Ooooh] such as Roger McGough and Sandi Toksvig are scheduled.
The venues in Colchester cover Slack Space, the University (a major Festival partner), Colchester Library, Layer Marney Tower, Prettygate Library, firstsite, The Mercury and even Wivenhoe House Hotel.
Some major themes will run throughout the Festival for 2013. The aim isn’t simply to celebrate books, but also to try and get folk active and writing. The Speed Dating sessions caught the attention of The Chronic. We also look forward to the publishing of the shortlist next month ahead of the Get It Writ short story writing competition.
Plus it’s also well worth catching the ACE exhibition transferring from The Minories to Slack Space, showcasing the fine work of the MA students at Colchester Institute:
“Past and present MA students from the ‘Art, Design and the Book’ Masters Degree programme, running at The Minories in Colchester, proudly present the intriguing world of artist books.
Curated by Paula MacGregor, herself an MA graduate from this course, the exhibition will show the various forms that Artist Books can take, including considering the ‘book as an object’.”
An added angle for this year is the continuation of a fringe festival all the way through until 2014. A book isn’t just for one month in March. The Extras will encourage the continuation of some of the ideas explored during the dedicated month of events coming up.
And so deep breath, here are some of the highlights we can look forward to in Sunny Colch as part of the Essex Book Festival in March:
2nd Anthony Horowitz: Oblivion, Mercury Theatre
3rd Writing the Self: Writers Workshop Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex,
5th James Canton: Out of Essex: Re-Imagining a Literary Landscape, firstsite
7th Sandi Toksvig: Valentine Grey, Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall
11th Jill Allen King: Jill’s Leading Ladies, Prettygate Library
12th Less is More: Celebrating Shorter Fiction, Mercury Theatre Studio, Colchester
13th Richard Mabey: Annual Burrows Lecture, Lakeside Theatre
14th Speed Dating for Writers 2, Colchester Library
16th Talking on Water, Lakeside Theatre
18th Atul Kochhar: Atul’s Curries of the World, Wivenhoe House Hotel
19th Elaine Fox: Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain, Lakeside Theatre
28th Roger McGough: As Far As I Know, Layer Marney Tower , Colchester
Full hard copies of the brochure are available throughout the libraries in the county. You can also download a PDF over here.
Looking good, ‘aint it?
Like Carly Simon once said: You’re so vain…
