Event News: the return of Noirwich

An exciting press release in my inbox today...The return of Noirwich. No authors have been announced yet other than Lee Child but last year there was a Scandi-crime day with Barry Forshaw. My birthday falls in the middle of this festival so I will be keeping a beady eye on noirwich.co.uk.

Crime Writing Festival Noirwich, returns for a second year this September, launching its programme with Lee Child, and announcing new partner Dead Good Books

After the success of last year’s festival, Noirwich Crime Writing Festival is returning to the streets of Norwich from Thursday 17 September to Sunday 20 September to bring award winning authors to the UNESCO City of Literature.

In 2014, over 500 people attended the festival and this year plans to be even bigger with Lee Child announced as the headline act on Thursday 17 September at Jarrolds Department Store.

This year, festival goers can experience the breadth of crime writing, from exciting debuts to new author collaborations at the festival.

This year is particularly exciting as it sees the collaboration change with Dead Good Books joining University of East Anglia (UEA) and Writers’ Centre Norwich (WCN) in partnership for the festival. Dead Good Books is uniquely placed as a community that covers books, TV and film across the industry with a highly engaged crime readership.

Lynsey Dalladay, Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Dead Good Books said:
“I’m thrilled we’re partnering with Noirwich in 2015. The crime fiction community thrives on live events and festivals and we’re committed to bringing the best of our events to our online audience in a creative and engaging way.”

The crime fiction and thriller market is the most popular literary genre in the world, with UK sales alone rising by 80 per cent in the last decade. Norwich became England’s first UNESCO City of Literature in 2012, making the festival a perfect fit for Norwich.

This September also sees the launch of a new Creative Writing MA in Crime Fiction at UEA. Drawing on the success of the University of East Anglia’s internationally acclaimed Creative Writing programme, this course will be one of the first fully dedicated, specifically designed, low-residential crime fiction Masters in the world.

Henry Sutton, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at University of East Anglia and award-winning crime novelist co-founded Noirwich and commented: “with such exciting partners, and at such an exciting time for the genre, our aim is to make Norwich the world’s leading centre for the study, practice and enjoyment of crime fiction. We believe we are a big step closer this year.”

One of the city centre venues for the festival will be grade 1 listed Dragon Hall, the brand new home of Writers’ Centre Norwich. Jonathan Morley, Programme Director at Writers’ Centre Norwich said: “Norwich currently doesn’t have a free-standing literature festival, so we’re very excited to fill that gap with Noirwich. Celebrating crime fiction (the UK’s most popular literary genre) in England’s only UNESCO City of literature will attract sizeable audiences, enabling local retailers to make a killing!”

The full line-up, tickets and more information about Noirwich can be found on www.noirwich.co.uk