'There isn't another writing festival in England as good as Writing on the Wall'   Irvine Welsh

Writing on the Wall has delivered 9 highly successful festivals since 2000.

Our festivals have featured hundreds of events (each with its own unique slant on the processes of reading and writing) and have been attended by tens of thousands of people.

Our varied programmes have attracted a wide range of writers and artists: from local aspirants to the internationally renowned. Visitors to our events have often engaged in the various discussions and debates that are raised within city centre venues or community spaces.

EXAMPLES OF PRESTIGIOUS WOW EVENTS

The official launch of "Beating Berlusconi" play at The Novas Contemporary Urban Centre (May 2009)
Steve Bell on his work as Britain's most outrageous cartoonist (May 2009)
A unique event entitled "Palestine: Outsiders in their Homeland" where Palestinians, Muslims, Jews, Christians and the agnostic discussed the contemporary situation in Israel and Palestine (May 2009)
Billy Bragg, Attila the Stockbroker, David Rovics, Alun Parry at The Picket (May 2009)
Anne Enright at The Bluecoat (May 2009)
Urban Youth Showcase with Bashy, Liverpool Young Writers, Urbeatz and Noize (2009)
Six separate theatrical productions, in association with Liverpool Network Theatre Group (2008 and 2009)
Tony Benn and Roy Bailey at the Royal Philharmonic Hall (May 2008)
John Cooper Clarke at The Stanley Hall (May 2008)
Yasmin Alibai-Brown's autobiographical spoken word performance in The Rodewald Suite (May 2008)
Steven Poliakoff's first public appearance in Liverpool, at The Unity Theatre (May 2008)
Mobo winner Sway, with Skinnyman, Nikki Blaze, Kof and performers from the Liverpool Young Writers project at The Picket (May 2008)
Linton Kwesi Johnson, Khadijah Ibrahiim and Nikki Blaze at The Stanley Theatre (Oct 2007)
Fred D'Aguair in Conversation at the Kuumba Imani Centre (July 2007)
An evening with Benjamin Zephaniah, Levi Tafari and Jean 'Binta' Breeze at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall (May 2007)
An evening with Moazzam Begg (former detainee of Guantanamo Bay), hosted by Brian Reade (Mirror journalist) in Kuumba Imani Millenium Centre (May 2007)
An evening of Poetry & Song with poets Grace Nichols and Clare Shaw, plus acapella women's choir, Soul Purpose - Rodewald Suite, Liverpool Philharmonic (May 2007)
Louis de Bernieres (author of Captain Corelli's Mandalin) & Ilone Antonius-Jones in a sparkling show of poetry, classical and traditional music and badinage -Blackburne House (May 2007)
Brian Patten's 60th Birthday Celebrations - night of Poetry, Music and Dance, Static Gallery (April 2006)
Evening with prize-winning Irish author, Bernard MacLaverty in Hemingways Cafe (April 2006)
Evening with Diana Melly, wife of jazz legend, George, in Hemingways Cafe (April 2006)
Danny Morrison (Ireland's most controversial writer) in Conversation at the Rodewald Suite, Philharmonic Hall (April 2006)
Noam Chomsky Lectures: two sold-out events featuring America's best known academic at Liverpool Academy and the University of Manchester (2004).
'Drinking Tales' - a discussion event with four published novelists – Kevin Sampson (Away Days, Powder), Helen Walsh (Brass), Niall Griffiths (Victor + Kelly,Sheepshagger), Lora Hird (Children of Albion Rovers) at The Pilgrim public house (2004).
'An Evening With...' the acclaimed Scottish writer and Booker Prize winner James Kelman (How Late it Was, How Late; You have to Be Careful in the Land of the Free) at The Unity Theatre (2004)

'Notes from the Underground' - a showcase of writers signed to one of the UK's most successful publishing houses, Canongate, with Patience Agbab, Gwendoline Riley, and Jamie Byng, held in the Williamson Tunnels (2004).
'Writing on the War' - a discussion event on war journalism with Brian Reade (columnist for The Mirror), Joe Meno (Chicago novelist) and Metin Yegin (Turkish writer and film maker) at The Unity Theatre (2003)
'Discography' – Music writing discussion event with Irvine Welsh, Dr Hillegonda Rietveld (This is Our House), Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton (Last Night A DJ Saved My Life), and Dave Haslam (Manchester England, The Guardian) at The Picket Venue, Hardman Street (2002)
City centre discussion events with Brian Keenan (An Evil Cradling), Jimmy McGovern (Cracker, Hillsborough), Ricky Tomlinson (The Royle Family) in a variety of venues (2002).
Music writing discussion event with Bill Drummond (How to Have A Number One Single), Caroline Sullivan (The Guardian), and Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting) at Blackburne House (2001).

Crime writers discussion event with Charlie Siega (Killer), Kevin Sampson (Outlaws) and Howard Marks (Mr Nice) at The Unity Theatre (2001)
An Evening With acclaimed novelist Roddy Doyle (The Commitments, Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha) at The Unity Theatre (2000).

WRITING ON THE WALL IS AN AWARD WINNING FESTIVAL

WOW has won two prestigious awards for its work in developing short films with young people. This includes an award for ESCALATING – the 'best script developed by young people' at the Chicago Children's International Film Festival and written by pupils from Croxteth Comprehensive School, and an award for  'Best Comedy' for Report by pupils from Weatherhead School at the First Light Awards.

LOCAL COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS

Jam Soup, a day of creativity at the old Palace Cinema building, Dingle (2009)
Haifa Zangana event, in partnership with the Liverpool Arabic Centre.
Yemeni Women Creative Writing Workshops, led by Emily Porter - Kuumba Imani Millenium Centre (2007)
Question Time Event for Refugee Action week with Mahdi Hussein, Gorden Hurd, Nicolette Muzazi, Chris Walker and Roger Phillips in Blackburne House (2006)
Writers Workshop with Levi Tafari in partnership with Crown Street Mental Health Resource Project (2006)
A series of community focussed events based around scriptwriting, songwriting, writing for the internet, short fiction, digital film making and the publishing industry, in Fazakerley, Netherton, Wallasey, Gilmoss, Garston, Kirkby, Speke, Clubmoor, Toxteth, Dovecot, Bootle, Granby, Netherley, Kensington (2002).

Story telling Events and Writing Workshops at Liverpool Central Library, Larkhill Library, Unity Theatre, Netherton Community Centre, Fazakerley Community Centre, Abbots Lea School, Wirral museum, Unity Theatre, and Sanfield Mersey View (2003).

Radio Scriptwriting and Acting Workshop at Speke Parklands City Learning Centre, a partnership event with BBC Radio (2004) Education and Training Events (including school-based projects).

Film Making Workshops organised in partnership with TenantSpin and Mersey Television (2000).

From Script to Screen, a partnership project with Croxteth Comprehensive, Holly Lodge Secondary School, Anfield Comprehensive, Weatherhead High School, Domestic Films, Hothouse Films, Pidgin Films, Rich Films, Women's Independent Cinema House, Arts in Action, Liverpool City Council, The Big Issue, and First Light (the Lottery funding arm of the Film). This project involved schoolchildren working with acclaimed writers such as Frank Cottrell Boyce, Chrissie Glazebrook, Laura Hird, Jimmy McGovern, Kevin Sampson and Irvine Welsh. The end result was five stunning digital films (2002).

Scriptwriting and Digital Media Workshops in partnership with Radio Merseyside, Mersey Television and Liverpool John Moores University (2002).

Schools Performance Showcase. School children from across Merseyside perform to a full house at The Everyman Theatre (2003).

Writing on the Wall Schools' film project, involving hundreds of schoolchildren working with Writing on the Wall mentor Jimmy McGovern to write, produce, direct and edit five short films (2003).  

Commonwealth writers showcase, with Diran Adebayo, Jean Binta Breeze, Debjani Chatterjee, Lindsey Collen, and Lemn Sissay (2002).

Sense of Sound Event for International Women's Day (2002)

Performance Poetry Events with local writers including Levi Tafari and Muhammed Khalil (2002)

Whispers in the Walls – a literary discussion event featuring Black and Asian writers from Birmingham (2003)

Writing from Prison - Showcase and discussion event organised in conjunction with the Free to Write Project (LJMU, HMP Liverpool) (2003).
A Big House Arts showcase of dramatic pieces and monologues written by serving prisoners at HMP Liverpool, Rodewald Suite (2003)
'Community History' Events with a range of local historians in both city centre venues and community spaces (2004).

An Introduction to Sufi Mystical Writings with muslim writers (2004). Screenings and Premieres.

Mua Anter Peace Train – The Road to Diyarbakir - a premiere screening of a 45 minute documentary on war-torn South-Eastern Turkey.

Schools Film Premiere to a full house at the Plaza Community Cinema, Crosby (2002).

Liver2007, a series of community based events to launch a website celebrating 800 years of Liverpool history, in partnership with the International Centre for Digital Content and the Workers Education Association (2003).

A Screening & Discussion Event based around the Channel 4 documentary, Crackhouse, which investigated the deleterious effects of crack use on the community in Liverpool 8 (2003)

Launch of The Cunard Yanks, a documentary project involving digital video, oral history and archive research (2003).

The British Premiere of "F", a documentary on Turkish hunger strikers (2003)

Schools Film Premiere at a sold-out Empire Theatre (2003)

Schools film screenings on The Community Channel (cable TV), and at The National Film Theatre, South Bank Centre, London (2003)

Launch of Green Avalanche, a video documentary on Dutch laws on soft drug use. Organised in partnership with Toxteth TV (2004).

This page was modified on January 26, 2010