Nottingham City of Literature HQ recently relocated from Bromley House Library down to the Creative Quarter’s lively Sneinton Market redevelopment, sharing office space with Nottingham’s cultural bible, LeftLion.
Originally an online fansite and messageboard for all things NG, LeftLion sprang into print in 2004. Since then, it’s been a crucial cheerleader for Nottingham and the cultural fabric that makes us such an excellent and lively city to live in. Some say it has done more than any other institution to codify the Nottingham vernacular, and we’d nod along with that.
They were early supporters of the bid to become a UNESCO City of Literature, when the idea was little more than a glint in a playwright’s eye. In turn, showing UNESCO how well we celebrate culture in the subsequent bid submission helped greatly in getting the thumbs-up on the accolade.
So we were delighted when they approached us last month and asked “D’ya fancy taking over for an issue?”. Well, of course we did. And although it is impossible to cram everything we could have written into the issue without it being printed on microfiche, it’s still a glittering trove of local lit jewels, featuring our Young Poet Laureate Georgina Wilding; our Chair David Belbin talking about Stanley Middleton; our Director Sandeep Mahal expounding City of Literature matters; excerpts from the works of John Harvey and Shreya Sen Handley; and much, much more.
You can pick up a free copy from all around Notts, or have a gawp via the internet by clicking here.