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Nottingham Festival of Words has gone to press...


As we write, our programme is being printed. It's not happened until now because some of the fantastic international events we are bringing you didn't get confirmed funding until a week ago and we've been working our socks off since then to get the final programme completed. So it is an appropriate time to give a big high five to our designer at Silbercow and printers at Russell Press who have been exceptionally friendly, patient and responsive to our increasingly hysterical demands. Sorry, I meant urgent demands.

Russell Press themselves have an interesting history, being founded by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation in 1968 which seems a spectacularly relevant coincidence to some of our international programme, especially an event called Faultlines (14 October) which will be chaired by English Pen and features writers from conflict-ridden and dangerous parts of the world.

Tickets for this, and other events, will be on sale via the Nottingham Playhouse Box Office very soon.

The only exception to this are the tickets for Ali Smith in conversation with Jon McGregor on Friday 17 October at Nottingham Lakeside Arts - tickets are already on sale via the Lakeside Arts Box Office. Ali Smith's book, How to be Both, has today been announced on to the Man Booker shortlist - we are very excited to be welcoming her along.

With a month to go, it's party time!
We'd like to invite you to help us please - and be amongst the first to hear what's planned. We will be holding a programme launch on Thursday 18 September at 6pm at Nottingham Writers' Studio.

All welcome - on condition you're prepared to take away some posters and programmes to spread the word far, wide and quickly!

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