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Commonword
Commonword (1975–present) is a writing development organisation based in Manchester, North West England, providing opportunities for new and aspiring writers to develop their talent and potential, promoting new writing on national and international levels. The organisation was set up in 1975. It is currently the largest new writing, community writing and publishing organisation in the North West. It is a limited company and registered charity, and is Arts Council funded. Activist and writer Deyika Nzeribe was a former chair. History Commonword was set up as writing workshop and community publisher of working-class writing in Manchester. Greg Wilkinson was one of the organisation's founder members. Cultureword Cultureword is the strand of Commonword established in 1986 as a centre for black and Asian creative writing. Lemn Sissay was working at the organisation as Cultureword's literature worker and convenor of the "Tight Fisted Poets" group, nurturing new writing talent am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nii Parkes
Nii Ayikwei Parkes (; born 1 April 1974), born in the United Kingdom to parents from Ghana, where he was raised, is a performance poet, writer, publisher and sociocultural commentator. He is one of 39 writers aged under 40 from sub-Saharan Africa who in April 2014 were named as part of the Hay Festival's prestigious Africa39 project. He writes for children under the name K.P. Kojo. Biography Born in the UK while his parents were studying there, Nii Parkes was raised from the age of three or four in Ghana, where he was educated at Achimota School. His first editorial role was in 1988 working on his school magazine, ''The Achimotan'', and he went on to co-found, at the age of 17, ''filla!'' magazine, Ghana's first student-run national magazine."Nii Ayikwei Parkes, YCE Finalist" , British Council Creative ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lemn Sissay
Lemn Sissay FRSL (born 21 May 1967) is a British author and broadcaster. Sissay was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics, has been chancellor of the University of Manchester since 2015, and joined the Foundling Museum's board of trustees two years later, having previously been appointed one of the museum's fellows. He was awarded the 2019 PEN Pinter Prize. He has written a number of books and plays. Early life Sissay's mother, Yemarshet Sissay, arrived in Britain from Ethiopia in 1966. Pregnant at the time, she was sent from Bracknell to a home for unwed mothers in Lancashire to give birth. His birth father, Giddey Estifanos, was a pilot for Ethiopian Airlines, who later passed away in a plane crash in 1972. Sissay was born in Billinge Hospital, near Wigan, Lancashire, in 1967. Norman Goldthorpe, a social worker assigned to his mother by Wigan Social Services, found foster parents for Sissay while his mother returned to Bracknell to finish her studies. Goldthorpe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two cities and the surrounding towns form one of the United Kingdom's most populous conurbations, the Greater Manchester Built-up Area, which has a population of 2.87 million. The history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort ('' castra'') of ''Mamucium'' or ''Mancunium'', established in about AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. Historically part of Lancashire, areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated into Manchester in the 20th century, including Wythenshawe in 1931. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zahid Hussain (author)
Zahid Hussain (born 6 March 1972) is a British fiction writer and poet of Pakistani origin. ''Photograph and first four pageavailable on Google boks/ref> His debut novel, '' The Curry Mile'', was published by Suitcase Press, a Manchester-based publishing house. Hussain explores social and ethical issues in his writing. Early life and education Hussain was born in Darwen, Lancashire to Pakistani parents and grew up in Blackburn speaking Urdu, Punjabi, and English. His father is of Mirpuri origin from Azad Kashmir, while is mother is of Pashtun origin from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He has a European IT degree from Sheffield Hallam University and postgraduate management qualifications from the universities of Bournemouth, Barcelona and Bordeaux. Politics Since 2021 Hussain has been a councillor on Manchester City Council, representing the Levenshulme Levenshulme () is an area of Manchester, England, bordering Fallowfield, Longsight, Gorton, Burnage, Heaton Chapel and Reddish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rosie Garland
Rosie Garland (born 1960) is a British novelist, poet and singer with post-punk band The March Violets. Life Born in London on 8 May 1960, as a baby she was adopted by her mother Mary Garland (née Metcalfe) and father William Garland, spending her childhood living in Hampshire, Somerset, Devon and Hertfordshire. In 1978, aged 18, she moved to Yorkshire to study at the University of Leeds, graduating with a BA Hons in English Special Studies and an MA (with distinction) in Medieval English Studies. In 1980 she joined The March Violets. During 1984-1986 she worked as an English Teacher in Sudan. From 2001 she was the victim of a stalker, with the 2007 court case featured as a lead article in the Manchester Evening News. In 2009 she was diagnosed with throat cancer and successfully treated at The Christie Hospital in Manchester. Career She has published seven solo collections of poetry. As a performance poet, she has often given readings as her alter-ego Rosie Lugosi, Lesbian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Reno, Manchester
The Reno was a late night club in Moss Side, Manchester, England. The Reno and the Nile (upstairs from the Reno) were Manchester's most famous drinking clubs for the city's West Indian community and played a key role in the development of black culture in the city. It was located at the corner of Princess Road and Moss Lane East. In 2017 the remains of the club were excavated. History The Reno was started by Phil Magbotiwan in 1962, initially as a Salvation Army hostel for African seamen. Before then it was a club called "The Palm Beach", which was run by Roland West.mancky.co.ukMancky accessdate: 05/09/2014actsofachievement.org.ukActs Of Achievement : Moss Black History Trail accessdate: 05/09/2014 The Reno was in the downstairs of the building, with the Nile Club upstairs. In the early days, there was live music with calypso bands, including the tenor sax player and band leader Lord Kitchener, and the West Indian cricketer Clive Lloyd was a regular visitor. Both clubs we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hulme
Hulme () is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England, immediately south of Manchester city centre. It has a significant industrial heritage. Historically in Lancashire, the name Hulme is derived from the Old Norse word for a small island, or land surrounded by water or marsh, indicating that it may have been first settled by Norse invaders in the period of the Danelaw. History Toponymy Hulme derives its name from the Old Norse ''holmr, holmi'', through Old Danish ''hulm'' or ''hulme'' meaning small islands or land surrounded by streams, fen or marsh. Ekwall, Eilert ''The Place-Names of Lancashire'' (1922, The University Press, Lime Grove, Manchester) The area may have fitted this description at the time of the Scandinavian invasion and settlement as it is surrounded by water on three sides by the rivers Irwell, Medlock and Corn Brook. Ekwall suggested that the considerable number of Danish names to the south and south-west of Manchester, unparalle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moss Side
Moss Side is an inner-city area of Manchester, England, south of the city centre, It had a population of 20,745 at the 2021 census. Moss Side is bounded by Hulme to the north, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Rusholme and Fallowfield to the east, Whalley Range to the south, and Old Trafford to the west. As well as Whitworth Park and Alexandra Park, Moss Side is close to Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan universities."Moss Side and Rusholme District Centre Local Plan". Manchester City Council. 2007. p. 52. Manchester City played at Maine Road in Moss Side between 1923 and 2003. History Historically part of Lancashire, Moss Side was a rural township and chapelry within the parish of Manchester and hundred of Salford. Thought to be named after a great moss which stretched from Rusholme to Chorlton-cum-Hardy, the earliest mention of the area is in 1533 when it contained part of the estates of Trafford. Moss Side is described in the opening chapter of Elizabeth Gaskel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
JJ Bola
JJ Bola is a Kinshasa-born, British poet, writer and educator, based in London. He has written three collections of poetry as well as two novels, ''No Place to Call Home'' (2017) and ''The Selfless Act Of Breathing'' (2021), and a non-fiction book about masculinity and patriarchy for young people, ''Mask Off: Masculinity Redefined'' (2019). His writing explores themes of displacement and belonging. Life and work Bola was born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. He migrated to London with his parents at the age of six. He was a basketball player as a teenager, competing in national-level tournaments; not having a British passport, he could not travel to international competitions and was unable to respond to interest from universities in America. He won a Kit de Waal Creative Writing Scholarship to study at Birkbeck, University of London (2017), earning an MA degree. His debut novel, ''No Place to Call Home'' (published in 2017 by Own It!), is about the journey of a fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandeep Parmar
Sandeep Parmar is a contemporary poet, who was born in Nottingham, England, and raised in Southern California. She currently lives in the UK. Parmar is a Professor of English Literature at the University of Liverpool. Her poetry collections include ''The Marble Orchard'' (Shearsman 2012) and ''Eidolon'' (Shearsman 2015). She is also the author of ''Reading Mina Loy's Autobiographies: Myth of the Modern Woman'' (Bloomsbury 2013), and the editor of ''The Collected Poems of Hope Mirrlees'' (Carcanet 2011) and Nancy Cunard's ''Selected Poems'' (Carcanet 2016). See also * British Poetry Revival * Nancy Cunard * Hope Mirrlees * Mina Loy Mina Loy (born Mina Gertrude Löwy; 27 December 1882 – 25 September 1966) was a British-born artist, writer, poet, playwright, novelist, painter, designer of lamps, and bohemian. She was one of the last of the first-generation modernists to ... External links Review of ''The Marble Orchard'' at ''Fortnightly Review''Review of ''The Marble ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous books of poetry and taught at several universities, including the University at Buffalo and Stony Brook University. He received the PEN/Beyond Margins Award in 2008 for ''Tales of the Out and the Gone''. Baraka's plays, poetry, and essays have been described by scholars as constituting defining texts for African-American culture. Baraka's career spanned nearly 52 years, and his themes range from black liberation to white racism. His notable poems include "The Music: Reflection on Jazz and Blues", "The Book of Monk", and "New Music, New Poetry", works that draw on topics from the worlds of society, music, and literature. Baraka's poetry and writing have attracted both high praise and condemnation. In the African-American community, some comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North West England
North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,052,000 in 2011. It is the Countries of the United Kingdom by population, third-most-populated region in the United Kingdom, after the South East England, South East and Greater London. The largest settlements are Manchester and Liverpool. Subdivisions The official Regions of England, region consists of the following Subdivisions of England, subdivisions: After abolition of the Greater Manchester and Merseyside County Councils in 1986, power was transferred to the metropolitan boroughs, making them equivalent to unitary authorities. In April 2011, Greater Manchester gained a top-tier administrative body in the form of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which means the 10 Greater Manchester boroughs are once again second-ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
