Rewriting the North: A celebration of local literature at The Portico

Commencing Tue 26th Apr, the Portico Library hosts the 2022 online re-launch of Rewriting The North, an extensive programme of literary events which celebrate our region’s most talented writers and their stories.

Hosted by New York Times-bestselling sci-fi author Dr. Una McCormack, the first online conversation of the programme will feature both memories and predictions of life in the north for young women based upon the work of two acclaimed local writers.

Run in conjunction with The Portico Prize, an award established to recognise the prominence of Northern heritage and identity in modern literature, the series will ponder themes from last year’s winning entry, Toto Among The Murderers by Sally J. Morgan, which depicts the countercultural lives of four young women in 1970s Yorkshire.

The season opens with an arresting discussion featuring graphic writers Kate Charlesworth and Una, who explore their sprawling scenes of Northern life for young women existing on the social periphery while reckoning with profound intersectional pressures amid their unique places in time. 

Charlesworth’s memoir, Sensible Footwear: A Girl’s Guide, is a vibrant, transfixing visual chronology of lesbian life in Yorkshire from the 1950s to today, and captures the broader struggle to find direction and role models for LGBT youth among politically violent landscapes.

Set in the same county but in a soberingly recognisable dystopian future, Una’s graphic novel Eve is a stunning tale of another young girl who is also born into roiling social upheaval and must contend with looming totalitarianism in the wake of environmental chaos. 

Tickets are available now, you can grab yours using the link below.