Celebrate World Book Night with Carcanet this Monday at Waterstone's Manchester

This Monday, 23rd April, book lovers across the UK, Ireland, Germany and the USA will celebrate World Book Night. The brainchild of irrepressible Canongate publishing director Jamie Byng, WBN sees tens of thousands of people spreading the joy of reading by giving away copies of their favourite books within their communities. A great big party. With free books. Who wouldn't want to be part of that?!

Carola Luther

Carcanet will be celebrating this extravaganza of reading by hosting a Poet's Corner as part of the World Book Night event at Waterstone's Manchester branch. The entire top floor of the flagship bookstore on Deansgate in the city centre will be converted into a circus of readings, with informal performances by a host local writers. The event will take place between 6.30pm and 9.30pm and is free and open to all. Enjoy the opportunity to roam from one reader to the next, browse books, mingle and enjoy a class of wine with some of the North West's leading authors and this special 'out-of-hours' event. 

Taking up residence in the Carcanet Corner will be poets Evan Jones (the young Greek-Canadian whose second collection Paralogues comes out from Carcanet in June), Liverpool-based Helen Tookey, popular Manchester figure Grevel Lindop and the South African Carola Luther (currently Poet in Residence at the Wordsworth Trust), as well as Carcanet's Editorial Director Michael Schmidt (our compere for the evening). The poets will be reading their own work alongside their favourite poems by others, in a lively three-hour poetry relay.

In the fiction corner will be novelists Chris Killen (The Bird Room), Joe Stretch (Friction), Rodge Glass (author of the newly launched Bring Me the Head of Ryan Giggs) and many others.

And in the spirit of World Book Night, bring along a favourite book to swap with another guest in our giant World Book Night Book Swap. Do join us!

World Book Night at Waterstones Deansgate, Manchester, M3 2BW, 6.30-9.30pm, Monday 23rd April. Telephone 0161 837 3000 for more information.