Issue 48 November 2017

News arrived this month that Manchester has been awarded Unesco City of Literature status, so where better to start than highlighting this issue’s Word Life section, featuring four flash fictions. There will be more on that new status next month, along with a closer look at a new literary activity map, Writing Manchester, which has been created by our own Word Life in collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University.

In the background this month, we have Alex Ekins’ photographic project, which began with images of the Sadhu Shiva Das in Nepal in 2012 and has found its way to ours pages via the walls of his native Sheffield.

We chat with Don Letts for our featured interview, and reviews look at Grimmfest 2017, The Spirit of Hulme and The Believers Are But Brothers, among others.

In Talking Points, David Dunnico offers his perspective of the Design Manchester 2017 panel’s viewpoints on the public realm, while in Localcheck we look at age-friendliness, befriending and the #30DaysofFriendship campaign.

Enjoy the read.