Poetry as a dream of peace
The Corrymeela Community tells a story of a woman who came to its house for refuge. In her luggage she brought a small hatchet. She was ready to believe they were people of peace, but just in case,...
Lazarus is Dead
As you set out for Ithaka / hope the voyage is a long one…
Like Odysseus, we're all trying to find our way home. In some ways it's a paradoxical search, driving us to leave the familiar behind and journey into the unknown. But what kind of home should we...
Dreams of home
Mia will explore ideas of home – particularly the idealised vision people have of home, origins and family versus the reality – illustrated with short readings from her work. She'll look at the...
A Dream of Utopia in Soviet Karelia
Thousands of North American Finns, gripped by “Karelian Fever”, moved to the Soviet Union in the 1930s to help build a socialist utopia. What happens when utopian dreams go sour? Nancy's search...
The Bride and The Alarm Clock
El Gruer returns to Greenbelt with her new poetry performance tour. The Bride and the Alarm Clock will throw you into the powerful tick tock of an eternal body clock. From the Scottish Highlands,...
Speaker(s): El GruerDreaming Under Fire
The launch of a new story collection from homeless exsoldiers. While researching a novel on faith in the battlefield, Jari Moate collected the stories of troops who returned to the UK to find...
Paradise Now
Elektra is a video artist whose day-job at a call centre is killing her. Betrayed by everyone she loves, she flees a disastrous, last-ditch exhibition of her art to be recruited by a controversial...
All Families Are Psychotic
Perennial Greenbelt favourite Dr Andrew Tate leads literature lovers on a journey into the homes of famous families from fiction who are dysfunctional, oppressive and downright nightmarish. Tate's...
Speaker(s): Andrew TateLetterboxes and Lighthouses
Deborah will be reading from Good Condolences and talking more about her writing inspired by the paintings of 20th century US artist, Edward Hopper. Deborah has been writing short stories and flash...
There’s No Place Like Home
In the techicolored, diverse world of Oz, Dorothy yearns for home – the homogenous, monochrome state of Kansas. In an increasingly diverse world why do so many yearn for homogenous, monochrome...
An evening with Adrian Plass
Adrian Plass is displeased with flippancy. Just as well, some would say. For more than 25 years his benevolently subversive humour has been clearing away the kind of religious rubbish that...
The Still Point: in conversation with Amy Sackville
Amy will be discussing her approach to writing, life as an award-winning author and reading from her work. Amy's debut novel The Still Point was the winner of the 2010 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize...
Inside the Ambulance Box
Join Andrew for a reading from The Ambulance Box and from newer works. At the heart of this reading is an exploration of the emotional and spiritual ramifications of loss. His poems ask how we should...
Lost in Translation (Panel)
After all these years and all these versions, has the meaning and authority of the Bible been lost... or found? Maggi Dawn chairs a debate with experts Janet Soskice, Richard Burridge and Pete...