It has been a busy few weeks here at Bunbury Magazine HQ. Where to begin?!

Last month saw the Manchester Literary Festival. We headed into town and had the pleasure of catching Faber New Poets 10 at the Manchester Central Library. Each year, Faber pick a handful of promising poets and give them tutelage from established writers to help hone their craft. They each put together a collection and then tour the country presenting their stuff. The highlight for us this year was a man called Will Burns. His poetry had a touching reality to it that really drew us in. You can catch up with him here – http://www.willburns.co.uk/.

We also caught The Other Room at The Castle Hotel in Manchester. The Other Room is an event which presents experimental poetry from around the world. Our highlight at this event on the 18th October was a German poet call Ulli Freer. When he first walked onto stage he reached into a rucksack and turned on a small tape-player which filled the room with tribal chanting. He started his first poem to this chanting. Once this had finished, he wrapped his arms in bandages and launched into an epic, 15 minute poem, from memory, which was relentless, deep assault on the sense, and so wonderful. His voice carried through from the stage and beyond. If you ever get the chance to see this man – and he says he only performs about 4 times a year, we urge you to get there!

The week ended with a huge opportunity for us – a guest spot on Fab International Radio‘s literary show, ‘Page Turner‘, hosted by the wonderful Anna Percy and fantastically assisted by Pete Ford. On the show, we talked about censorship in publishing, in special relation to the book being released by MLA about his abuse as a child. With this light-hearted start, we moved on to each present a short story of our own and some pieces that have inspired us. We had plenty of good conversation and laughs about Douglas Adams, George Orwell and ended with the tale of The Giraffe in the Flat who couldn’t claim benefits. The show will be up on-line soon for you all to catch up at www.fabradiointernational.com.

A couple of weeks later, we hosted our latest event for the writing group we run, Do The Write Thing. And it was a Hallowe’en special. A true fright fest it was! Our regulars all spooked us with their offerings and we were incredibly fortunate to have the fantastic Gemma Lees as our head-liner. Gemma Also runs her own night called Once More With Meaning at the Met Bar in Bury. Check here for details.

So that’s about it. Busy busy busy but no rest for the wicked. We’re now looking forward to the next issue of Bunbury Magazine. The theme for this issue is The Unexplained. Here are our T&C‘s for submission. If you want to get involved or even just drop us a line, our email address is bunburymagazine@gmail.com

Take care, dear Bunburyists!