MARGATE WEEK
MONDAY
30/09
04/10
Lots of Bookieness in Margate Old Town
FRIDAY
- talks, walks, ideas, music, art, novels, poetry, bookbinding, book sharing…
Monday 30th September
3pm - 5pm | Wildes Cafe (Margate Old Town)
Billie's Tea Party and Book Club
Join us for a tea party where you can relax with friends eat some delicious cake and have fun !
✷ Books Beyond Words will share a book club using some of their books.
✷ The poet Maggie Harris and Margate DJ Bernadette Hawkes will offer a poetry reading and chat using a table top sculpture made as part of the Weave and Read group with Thread and Word in Herne Bay.
✷ Julie Anderson, the Author of The Book Club Book, will talk about writing and publishing a book sharing her experience as an adult with learning disabilities.
✷ Elspeth (Billie) Penfold will share sensory sculptures and poetry made with adults with learning disabilities as part of her Weave and Read poetry group during her time as artist in residence at East Kent Mencap in Herne Bay.
✷ Local author Peter Erlam will talk about his first children's novel featuring Ravi the brainy raven.
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Billie Penfold is a Bolivian/Argentinian artist who has lived and worked in the UK since 1970. | East Kent Mencap supports individuals with a learning disability in East Kent to tell us what is important to them. | Beyond Words Book Clubs give people with learning disabilities somewhere to make friends, have fun, and talk about the issues that affect their lives. | Maggie Harris is a Guyanese writer living in Kent. Her latest book is Kiskadee Girl, a memoir. | Julie Anderson, author. | 21 Together | Peter Erlam is a retired journalist who's completed a trilogy of Ravi books.
7.30pm - 9.30pm | The Margate School
Atypical Love Stories and Comedy Show
An evening celebrating love in its many forms, hosted by Alice and Emma from MixMatched, a local neurodivergent-led creative arts organisation.
Naughties Nostalgia & Atypical Love Stories ft. Elvin James Mensah
To celebrate the release of the anthology Atypical Love, we’ll be joined by queer British Ghanaian novelist Elvin James Mensah, author of Small Joys, to discuss diversity in love stories.
MixMatched Comedy Show – Love and Despair
Enjoy material from six local up-and-coming comedians with the theme of love and despair. Find the humour in the ups and downs of modern dating and more.
Starring: Scott Fishenden , Gabby Rolls , Adam Dorr, Zoe Grasby, Sham Shakil
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Elvin James Mensah is a 27 year old British-Ghanaian writer. His debut novel, Small Joys, is about love, friendship and finding meaning in the mid-noughties. | Alice Riley is a writer based near Margate. Her work now largely focuses on neurodiversity. | Emma Robdale is a neurodivergent performer, writer, poet, artist, comedian and community builder.
Tuesday 1st October
7.30pm - 9.30pm | The Margate School
Local Writers Showcase
The literary scene in Planet Thanet is booming!
Come and listen to readings from 13 local writers.
Wellness & badness, love & death, music & sandwiches.
Jeanine Connor - You're Not My F*cking Mother
Madeleine F White - Maiden Mother Crone
Seb Reilly - Seaside Gothic
Simon Mason – Too High, Too Far, Too Soon
Zita Whalley - Sandwiches: A British Love Story
Gavin Boyter - Elena in Exile
Mike Goldwater & Sarah Tait - Island
Andrew Dennis - Mixtape
Bernie Morgan - The Amazing Life of Cecilia Chattergee.
Anna Gash - Let the Bodies Pile High
Naomi Gale - In Your Vagina Lies The Key To Your Happiness
Sarah Candlish
Joshua Piercy - The Windfarmer
Wednesday 2nd October
6.00pm - 7.00pm | The Margate School
Borderland by Rod Edmond
After almost drowning while playing cricket on the Goodwin Sands, Rod Edmond sets out to walk the East Kent coastline from Thanet to Folkestone, to explore its geography, its history of invasion and defense, and investigate how its fabled White Cliffs mark a border that has sometimes offered refuge and at other times refused entry.
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Rod Edmond was born in New Zealand but has lived most of his adult life in England. He is Emeritus Professor of Modern Literature and Cultural History at the University of Kent, and has written books on Victorian literature, Pacific travellers, leprosy and empire, islands, migration and cricket. He lives in Deal.’
7.30pm - 9pm | The Margate School
Margate - A hidden history of authors, artists and lovers
Join us for a funny and irreverent presentation that takes you through the ages in Margate.
The tour covers not just maverick authors, rock ‘n’ roll artists and runaway lovers … (many of them famous, and some you never knew)…. but also booze smugglers, naughty Victorians, and the amusing tale of the (real) Margate mechanical elephant. Will MacLachlan is a local historian who works in marketing and loves comedy… so he likes to make history relevant and fun for the audience.
Thursday 3rd October
7.30pm - 9.30pm | The Margate School
The Nature of Belonging - Rainforests and Caminos
Join us for an enchanting evening of travel, poetry and music.
Thanet Writers Maggie Harris and Mark Holihan both hail from the Americas and their artistic journeys continue to entice them to cross continents. Together with Ramsgate Radio’s Creative Director, sound artist and musician Filipe Gomes, and Margate poet Jess Rose, they’ll explore the lure of travel and of home.
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Maggie Harris is a poet, prose writer and visual artist originally from Guyana, South America. Her books include On Watching a Lemon Sail the Sea, Kiskadee Girl and Limbolands. She’s won The Welsh Poetry Award, the Guyana Prize for Literature, and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. | Filipe Gomes is a sound artist, composer, producer and musician, and the Artistic Director of Ramsgate Radio. Filipe is interested in the essence of home. | Mark Holihan is a writer and artist. He was the winner of the Phalen Award for short fiction and poetry, and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. His first collection, There are No Foreign Lands, was published by Cultured Llama in 2016. | Jessica Taggart Rose is a writer and editor fascinated by human nature, the nature of time and our interactions with the natural world.
Friday 4th October
2pm - 3.30pm | The Margate School
Bookbinding Taster
Join Hope Fitzgerald from Bindfulness Handmade Books in Faversham, as she shares a variety of simple handbound structures and a taster of bookbinding techniques. Find out about paper grain and learn a simple sewing technique to create useful and beautiful books using basic tools and materials.
4pm - 6pm | The Margate School
Bee’s Bookshare
Hey! Let’s talk about books with Bee Bishop.
Bee’s Bookshare is a friendly community of book lovers, and we love to welcome new people to our meet-ups. Any type of book and any type of reader is welcome. There are no set books to read, just bring something you’ve loved or loathed to pass on and share the reading buzz.
Free to attend!
