Time to Read's first ever New Words Festival will run online throughout March with a series of writing workshops, author events and readings celebrating North West independent publishing.

Eleven events will take place as part of a collaboration between the 22 Time to Read library authorities and five North West publishers, beginning with Sarah Schofield's creative writing workshop at 2.30 pm on 1 March.

Tickets for the first three virtual events are sold out, but bookings remain available from 8 March onwards when poet Martina Evans will be in conversation with poet and publisher Michael Schmidt. 

The New Words Festival is supported by funding from Arts Council England and publisher partners Carcanet and Comma Press from Manchester, Dead Ink from Liverpool, Salford’s Saraband and Newton Le Willow’s Knives Forks and Spoons.

Each Time to Read library service has a collection of books by the featured authors to accompany the Festival, which you can reserve and borrow from your local library or purchase from the publishers directly.