Book now: Kazuo Ishiguro & Jackie Kay lead Manchester Literature Festival’s Spring programme + new events revealed

Manchester Literature Festival has revealed its Spring programme, with a special In Conversation event between Booker Prize and Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro and celebrated poet and festival patron Jackie Kay headlining an entirely-digital schedule of events.

Debuting at 7.30pm on Monday 19 April and available to view for 7 days afterwards, Kay will be speaking to Ishiguro about his new novel Klara and the Sun and the introspective themes about humanity that surround it. Much like his previous work The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro’s latest once again invites us to question what it is that makes us human, inspecting these themes from the point-of-view of an artificially intelligent third party.

Audiences can also enjoy an evening with poet and musician Roger Robinson on Thursday 25 March which will see the T.S Eliot prize winning writer reveal new work exploring the connections between Black Lives Matter and the black British experience which has been specifically commissioned for this year’s festival. Then – on Thursday 8 April – rising star poet Caleb Femi will debut new work looking at the impact of solitude during the pandemic, followed by a conversation about his work led by fellow poet Vanessa Kisuule.

Other recently unveiled events include Unaccustomed Earth author and Booker Prize shortlisted writer Jhumpa Lahiri in conversation with fellow award winning author Kamila Shamsie on Thursday 20 May and a newly commissioned series of poetic work from Natalie Diaz exploring the origin’, ‘migration’, ‘freedom’ and ‘love’. Diaz will perform these works for the first time on Thursday 22 April before embarking on a conversation about her work with poet Mary Jean Chan.

Tickets for each of these events are available via a pay-what-you-can basis starting at £6, with all proceeds going directly towards Manchester Literature Festival’s full-event which is due to take place in October this year. To secure your tickets, follow the link below.