A Tale of Two Cities
Birmingham Literature Festival
£8 (£6.40)
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Birmingham Literature Festival
A Tale of Two Cities: A Celebration of Riga and Birmingham
With Andris Kuprišs and Anna Lawrence.
In 2018, the Birmingham Literature Festival was invited to take part in a creative exchange project with Latvian online magazine and literature festival Punctum. The aim of the project was to commission two writers (one from Riga and one from Birmingham) to spend time in each partner city and create a creative and cultural response and connection to each place.
Birmingham writer Anna Lawrence and Rigan writer Andris Kuprišs took up the challenge, and we are delighted to present their responses to the commission as part of our 2019 festival.
Join us for this celebratory event showcasing two exciting writers and their experience of two exciting cities. Find out what each writer really thought of their partner city and how they explored and navigated the similarities and differences - geographical, cultural, social and political.
You might also like to attend our Riga-themed walk round Birmingham. Details here.
With thanks to the British Council for supporting this project.
About the speakers:
Andris Kuprišs is a writer based in Riga, Latvia. After earning a Masters diploma from Goldsmith's College in London, Andris returned to Riga where he begun as a translator, book critic, and essayist. Later he turned to writing fiction and since 2014 has published a number of short stories. Andris' first book, Berlin, was published at the beginning of 2019.
Anna Lawrence grew up in the industrial English Midlands and based her novel, Ruby’s Spoon, on her hometown. Before becoming a lecturer in creative writing at Birmingham City University, Anna was (among other things) a trainee prison governor, and this experience sparked her ongoing interest in how places shape the experience of people who live there.
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