To celebrate this year’s Record Store Day, ten writers have teamed up with musicians for Sleeve Notes, a unique collaborative performance response creating new writing and music. Save the date – 12 April.

Launching her shiny new volume of selected poems in Liverpool, where much of it was dreamed up, Eleanor Rees will be reading live and also chatting about the production and processes involved with her publisher Luke Thompson and fellow poet Dr Pauline Rowe.

Manchester’s live literature scene has been awash with amazing visiting poets this spring and for this free afternoon of absurd surreal poetry, we are agog to see Vik Shirley, Stephen Emmerson and Marcus Silcock corralled by Tom Jenks and reading in a place packed with brilliant books.

Various independent publishing houses will be setting out their stalls on Saturday 26 April at Manchester Central Library for the latest, now bi-annual, Northern Publishers’ Fair, organised by Manchester’s own Fly On The Wall Press.

Expect an unforgettable evening of captivating conversation as award-winning poet, memoirist, novelist and literary critic Seán Hewitt reads from his eagerly awaited debut novel, Open Heaven, and discusses it with celebrated poet Andrew McMillan on 28 April.

Throughout 2025, the team at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House is taking a deep dive into Ruth, one of the famous 19th-century author’s most shocking texts.

Throughout 2025, Elizabeth Gaskell’s House is celebrating its tenth anniversary, having first opened to the public a decade ago. From a close brush with dereliction to being awarded official accredited museum status in August 2024, it’s been an important decade in the building’s almost 200-year history.

Now in its 20th year, Manchester Literature Festival returns this autumn, running city-wide across a variety of venues in October. If you can’t wait until then, fear not – there’s a special programme of spring events!