THE HEATH BOOKSHOP LITERATURE AND MUSIC FESTIVAL –

Join library lovers and curators of Brum Library Zine, poet Liz Berry and novelist Catherine O’Flynn, for a celebration of Birmingham’s brilliant public libraries. From date stamps, library cards and secret borrowings, to inspiring stories of how libraries lifted us and sent us ‘Forward’! Liz and Catherine will share extracts from Brum Library Zine and chat about the ongoing campaign to protect Brum’s libraries from closure.

Liz Berry is an award-winning poet and author of the critically acclaimed collections Black Country (Chatto, 2014); The Republic of Motherhood (Chatto, 2018); and The Home Child (Chatto, 2023), a novel in verse. Liz’s work, described as “a sooty soaring hymn to her native West Midlands” (Guardian), celebrates the landscape, history and dialect of the region. Liz has received the Somerset Maugham Award, Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, The Folio Writers’ Prize and two Forward Prizes. Her poem ‘Homing’, a love poem for the language of the Black Country, is part of the GCSE English syllabus and she is a patron of Writing West Midlands.

Catherine O’Flynn is a novelist for adults and children. She is author of critically acclaimed novels: What Was Lost; The News Where You Are and Mr Lynch’s Holiday, and her books have been published in over 20 countries. Her writing has received various awards including the Costa First Novel Award and the Guildford Arts Book Prize, and been listed for the Booker, the Orange and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. Catherine’s Lori and Max novels for children based on her own experiences as a child detective were shortlisted for Blue Peter and UKLA book awards. Catherine has been described as ‘the JG Ballard of Birmingham…finding poetry and meaning where others see merely boredom and dereliction.”

This event is part of The Heath Bookshop Literature & Music Festival and is supported by National Lottery Grants Funding through Arts Council England.

This event will be BSL interpreted.

This is a free event but booking is required. Tickets will be released in January 2026.