~ WordTheatre presents Brian Cox, Juliet Stevenson, Chris McDonald, Nicole Ansari, Graham Hamilton, Ian Hart, John Schwab, Sally Hawkins, Belinda Stewart-Wilson, David Soul, David Cross, Ben Miller, Edi Gathegi and Amber Tamblyn ~
~ Jackie Kay ~ David Aaronovitch ~
~ 5x15: Craig Brown, Gavin Pretor Pinney and Michaela Wrong ~
~ Scarlett Thomas ~ China Miéville ~ D. J. Taylor ~ Rachel Trezise ~
The best literary event of the summer, Latitude’s Literary Arena celebrates the written word in all its fabulous glory. For both book worms and casual readers, the best authors and special guests will all congregate under the canopy of the arena and take you on a journey to the far reaches of your imagination. Just added are:
WordTheatre is a non-profit organisation dedicated to keeping the love of language and literature alive through the ancient tradition of oral storytelling. Since its inception in 2003, WordTheatre has been creating, producing and recording live events featuring literary works performed by world-class authors and actors at their salons in Los Angeles, New York and London. For Latitude, WordTheatre presents 'Tales of Love, Sex and All the Rest' in the Literary Arena featuring Short Stories from the Sunday Times Magazine, The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small presses and More. Performed by a star-studded International cast and directed by Cedering Fox.
Thursday - 'Love' features Chris McDonald (Thelma and Louise, Requiem for a Dream) performing Ron Carlson (Pushcart Prize, Ploughshares Cohen Prize), Nicole Ansari (Tom Stoppards Rock n Roll) performing Rachel Seiffert (PEN David T.K. Wong Award), Graham Hamilton (currently Hamlet at Washington DCs Folger Shakespeare Theatre) performing Etgar Keret (Israeli Oscar Award winning screenwriter), Ian Hart (Harry Potter's Professor Quirinus Quirrell)performing Aimee Bender (Pushcart Prize, Los Angeles Times Pick of the Year), John Schwab (The Complete Works of William Shakespeare) performing Dan Chaon (Pushcart Prize, O. Henry Prize), Brian Cox (The Escapist, The Bourne Identity) performing John Edgar Wideman (Macarthur Genius Grant) and Sally Hawkins (Happy Go Lucky, It’s A Wonderful Afterlife) performing Ali Smith (Whitbread Award).
Friday - 'Sex' features Pushcart Prize winning stories with Belinda Stewart-Wilson (Primeval, Inbetweeners) performing Marilyn Chin, Brian Cox (The Escapist, The Bourne Identity) performing Marvin Cohen, Juliet Stevenson (Truly, Madly, Deeply) performing Janice Eudis, Ian Hart (Harry Potter's Professor Quirinus Quirrell) performing David St. John and David Soul (Starsky and Hutch) performing Umberto Eco.
Saturday - All the Rest' will be introduced by Cathy Galvin, The Sunday Times Magazine Deputy Editor and founder of the biggest prize for a short story in the world: The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. A star-studded international cast will perform Paul Therouxs 14 part story, "Voices of Love", (a Sunday Times Short Story selection) including Amber Tamblyn (The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, Joan of Arcadia), Ben Miller (Armstrong and Miller), Belinda Stewart-Wilson (Primeval, Inbetweeners) Brian Cox (The Escapist, The Bourne Identity), Chris McDonald (Thelma and Louise, Requiem for a Dream), David Cross (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Year One), David Soul (Starsky & Hutch, Jerry Springer the Opera)), the Twilight sagas Edi Gathegi, Ian Hart (Harry Potter's Professor Quirinus Quirrell), John Schwab (The Complete Works of William Shakespeare), Nicole Ansari (Tom Stoppards Rock n Roll). In addition, Amber Tamblyn will also perform a story by Sara Lenzen (Sunday Times Magazine Short Story selection), David Cross will perform a short story by David Galef (Henfield Foundation grant) and the Twilight sagas Edi Gathegi will perform John Edgar Wideman (MacArthur Genius Grant).
In the Poetry Arena, WordTheatre presents, on Saturday afternoon, American actress and poet Amber Tamblyn from The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants reading from her highly acclaimed book of poetry 'Bang Ditto'. Later on Saturday, David Soul (Starsky and Hutch, Jerry Springer the Opera) will be reading Pablo Neruda accompanied by classical guitarist Hugh Burns. Produced by Kirsty Peart and Cedering Fox and please note all acts are subject to change.
Jackie Kay is known and loved for her fiction consisting of a novel, and short stories as well as for her poetry and her plays. In this revelatory and redemptive book, ‘Red Dust Road’, with characteristic generosity and humour, she tells the most inspirational of stories: her own. ‘What makes us who we are? My adoption is a story that has happened to me. I couldn’t make it up.’ From the moment when, as a little girl, she realizes that her skin is a different colour from that of her beloved mum and dad, to the tracing and finding of her birth parents, her Highland mother and her Nigerian father, the journey that Jackie Kay undertakes in Red Dust Road is full of unexpected twists, turns and deep emotions. In a book shining with warmth, humour and compassion, she discovers that inheritance is much more than genes: that we are shaped by songs as much as by cells, and that our internal landscapes are as important as those through which we move. Taking the reader from Glasgow to Lagos and beyond, ‘Red Dust Road’ is revelatory, redemptive and courageous, unique in its voice and universal in its reach. It is a heart-stopping story of parents and siblings, friends and strangers, belonging and beliefs, biology and destiny, and love. Kay is a poet, playwright, novelist and writer of short stories and has enjoyed great acclaim for her work for both adults and children. Her novel ‘Trumpet’ won the Guardian Fiction Prize and she has published two collections of stories with Picador, ‘Why Don’t You Stop Talking?’ and ‘Wish I Was Here’.
Regular Times columnist and past winner of the Orwell prize for political journalism, David Aaronovitch will be joining Latitude's Literary Arena. As well as his journalistic and broadcasting background, Aaronovitch has also written two factual books, 'Paddling to Jerusalem: An Aquatic Tour of Our Small Country' (2000) and last year's 'Voodoo Histories: the role of Conspiracy Theory in Modern History'. Strongly opinionated and occasionally controversial, Aaronovitch is an exciting addition to the Literary Arena's already bulging line-up.
5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to enlighten, entertain and inspire, as they tell the story behind their personal histories, most innovative ideas, grandest achievements and deepest obsessions - all in just 15 minutes. This is non-fiction story telling at its best - completely unscripted and PowerPoint free. 5x15 launched this year in London to packed out audiences and their merry band at Latitude features some of the highlights from the 5x15 programme so far. Joining Zoe Margolis and Tristram Stuart:
The legendary Private Eye satirist Craig Brown, most well known for his mock-celebrity diary entries in the popular satirical magazine, has also written comedy TV shows and radio shows, as well as contributing to publications from The Spectator to the Guardian; Brown will treat us to his Literary Festival in 15 minutes; Gavin Pretor-Pinney famous for wave watching, takes us to seventh heaven for some cloud spotting. We're also thrilled to announce a first timer to 5x15, the foreign correspondent and author Michela Wrong ‘It's Our Turn to Eat’ tells us a story of corruption and a Kenyan whistleblower. Come and join the Literary Arena for some mind-expanding entertainment that gets you thinking about far ranging topics from unusual perspectives.
Named as one of the Top 20 Best Young Writers by The Independent back in 2001, Scarlett Thomas has definitely fulfilled that promise. Having delivered the heady scientific and spiritual rush of ‘The End Of Mr Y’ four years ago, Thomas is due a return with her new novel ‘Our Tragic Universe’. Expect more of the sublime narrative, flawed personalities and head-scratching plots which she excels in.
China Miéville lives and works in London. He is the only person to have been awarded the Arthur C Clarke Award three times, most recently for ‘The City & The City’. It also won this year’s BSFA award for best novel and has been shortlisted for the Nebula and a Hugo. China’s latest novel, ‘Kraken’, begins deep in the research wing of the Natural History Museum, with the impossible disappearance of a perfectly preserved, giant squid. It's the start of a headlong pitch into a London of warring cults, surreal magic and assassins.
Novelist and biographer D. J. Taylor is probably best known for his impressive biography of George Orwell ‘Orwell: The Life’ which garnered him the Whitbread Biography Award in 2003. Taylor’s works on the histories of individuals are highly respected but not to the detriment of the praise for his traditional Victorian-Edwardian style novels, such as last year's ‘Ask Alice’.
Welsh author Rachel Trezise has in the past been described as 'the new face of literature' by Harpers & Queen magazine only a year after her debut novel 'In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl'. More recently, she also won the Dylan Thomas Prize for a book of short stories entitled 'Fresh Apples' which dealt with life in mining communities in South Wales. She has also compiled a selection of work inspired by the New York noise band Sonic Youth as well as writing about her own experiences in rock band Midasuno. Her next novel, ‘Sixteen Shades of Crazy’, is naturally highly anticipated and we hope to hear snippets of this soon-to-be-published work when she arrives at Henham Park.
Already confirmed for the Literary Arena are the every popular Robin Ince and his Book Club, Bret Easton Ellis, Sebastian Faulks, and New Order's Peter Hook interviewed by Keith Allen.
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