Returning for its twelfth year, Wordpool - Blackpool Arts and Libraries Festival of Words - promises to be yet another fantastic year in 2018. 

During the festival week in May they'll be reflecting the mood of the nation and sharing the romance of the impending Royal Wedding with an evening of bestselling romantic fiction at Stanley Park’s Art Deco Café on Tuesday 15th May from 6pm. So don those formals and florals and join internationally best-selling authors Carole Matthews and Fiona Walker with host Hayley Kay of Radio Wave for a fundraising launch event that has all the romance, food, music and laughter you’d expect of this very special week.

Notable festival events on Wednesday 16th May include:

• TV writer and comedian Mark Billingham will be tackling the subject of honour killing in a discussion about the 14th book in his Tom Thorne series with Head of Blackpool Libraries Mark McCree.

• Darren McGarvey aka Scottish rapper, Loki will be challenging our young audiences at Blackpool 6th Form College with his wise and witty manifesto for change, Poverty Safari. They're excited to be able to showcase new talent and 2018 publishing sensations C J Tudor and Nick Clark Windo are creating quite a buzz at Wordpool HQ. 

Blackpool’s branch libraries are hosting special events throughout the festival, offering a heady mix of tea, cake and fiction with authors as diverse as thriller writer Elisabeth Carpenter (Palatine Library), historical novelist Joanna Hickson (Moor Park Library) and author of the Kate Shackleton Mysteries, Frances Brody (Anchorsholme Library café).

To coincide with the event, BlueMoose Books are launching their eagerly awaited anthology of short stories inspired by the North-West coast, Seaside Special: Postcards from the Edge. Kevin Duffy (BlueMoose Books) joins three of the Seaside Special authors, Costa Award Winner - Andrew Michael Hurley, Anita Sethi, Lucy Wilkinson Yates and editor Jenn Ashworth at their special event at Central Library on the evening of festival Wednesday.

Following on from the success of last year’s Writers’ Day, there will be a full-day programme of events (Central Library - Thursday 17th May 12-4.30pm) for writers wanting to hone their skills and learn more about the journey to publication. 

This is the second year of Wordpool’s two year development programme funded through Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants. Wordpool’s ever popular Family Day will be returning to Stanley Park on Saturday July 7th . Roll Up, Roll Up to Wordpool’s Most Marvellous Family Day with wondrous fun for all ages.

For tickets and more information on Wordpool and the Festival of Written Word, please go to www.wordpoolfestival.co.uk

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