Eat your words: series of literature talks by Manchester Writing School

A new series of talks at MMU may well have you eating your words.

A Body of Words – staged by the Manchester Writing School – kicks off with Desire and Eating Bodies, which is billed as offering a creative perspective on body image from academics and poets. The event on 13 February will feature poetry in performance, audience discussions and creative writing prompts and aims to start a dialogue around issues from eating disorders to self-portraits.

The first talk is led by Dr Angelica Michelis, a lecturer at MMU whose interests range from gender studies to gothic fiction.

The talk at the Anthony Burgess Foundation in Cambridge Street will look at the relationship between eating, our bodies and how food, its consumption, digestion and rejection tell us stories about desire, abjection, fear and pleasure: “in short – stories about ourselves”.

Also on the panel for the event will be Forward Prize nominee Malika Booker from the University of Leeds). Malika is a writer, poet, theatre-maker, multi-disciplinary artist and creative writing lecturer. Poet Kelsie Silverstone will be reading from her work.

The talk is free and is on from 7pm-10pm.

Other talks planned as part of the Body of Words festival include Selfie Aware with award-winning poet Andrew McMillan on 14 March and The Body Beautiful on 25 April with poets Helen Mort and Alan Buckley.