Here's Greenbelt Literature Programmer Ben Whitehouse with an introduction to Nicky Getgood, appearing at Greenbelt 2011… — Nicky Getgood is Communications Manager at Talk About Local and author of the Birmingham blog Digbeth is Good. At Talk About Local she enables people to find a more powerful voice online for their community and express themselves. [...]

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On this World Book Day, here's Ben Whitehouse with a bookish confession:- — My name is Ben Whitehouse. And I’m a book addict. I'm one of the literature coordinators at Greenbelt. This is my confession. I have a serious book addiction. I always have and I secretly hope I always will. I don't ever want [...]

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I'm a big fan of bookclub meetings with friendly banter, good books and being a meeting of minds. The bookclub meetings held at the Festival last year were an absolute treat. Following the comedic revelation that I was not Carol Ann Duffy there were some wonderful insightful comments about her poetry. Sally Nicholls also gave [...]

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For those of you still yearning for a "Long Now" experience you should point your feet, trains and cars in the direction of Birmingham and check out an exhibition. The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is hosting an exhibition of Craft and the Slow Revolution from the 17th October 2009- 4th January 2010. The exhibition [...]

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Jon Bounds spoke at the Festival this year. One his excellent talks was about his 11-11-11 project. He's written about the project he's conducting this year for the blog. – I there’s one thing I like in the Old Testament is it’s grasp of the symbolic power of encircling a town. When Joshua brings down [...]

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by Ben Whitehouse Artistic director of Stan's Cafe (pronounced Caff and not cafe after a real cafe just off Brick Lane), James Yarker has been named in the Birmingham Post's Power 50 list. One of their most recent projects was a 24-hour Scalextrix race to coincide with the Le Mans race. He co-founded Stan's Cafe [...]

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by Ben Whitehouse I asked Jon Bounds to "write a post for the blog" and wasn't too sure what I'd get back. As usual I wasn't disappointed, Jon has delivered, in his own unique, way, something wonderful about his talks for the festival. Make sure you catch them, they're not to be missed! The ways [...]

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by Ben Whitehouse The Third Tribe is the first book by newcomer novelist Rob Chidley and he's already attracting attention: "Be prepared to be kept on the edge of your seats," says GP Taylor, the New York Times bestselling author of Shadowmancer. Rob Chidley's book is "gripping and exciting, The Third Tribe is a must [...]

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Carol Ann Duffy has been named as the new Poet Laureate, the first woman to be appointed in the 341-year history of the post. She's the first woman, the first mother, the first lesbian to be appointed to the post. She was widely regarded as the runner up to the post when Andrew Motion was [...]

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The internets is a great place to find the strangest things & today it threw a digested look at the news of the week filtered through an Auto-tune- it's the device that made Cher's voice go all wobbly in her 1998 track Believe and it can be used to make someone off pitch sound on [...]

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