Three years ago Birmingham authors Charlie Hill and Andy Killeen hatched a plan over a pint in the beer garden of the Prince of Wales, Moseley.
It’s where the young Tolkien is said to have met in secret with Edith Brett, who was to later become his wife.
A century later, and Moseley still enjoys a bohemian and literary reputation, as home to novelist Jim Crace and the inspiration for many other writers, artists and musicians.
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So, it seemed the ideal venue for a literary festival, as Charlie Hill, co-founder of Pow-Wow Litfest explains: “One of the strangest things, perhaps, is that it took so long for someone to come up with the idea, given that Moseley is Birmingham’s most book-friendly suburb.
“The name is taken from Andy’s writing group Prince of Wales Writers on Writing which meets in the pub every Tuesday night.
“The festival grew from a desire to provide support and networking opportunities for local writers and to give the public an insight into the business of books and what makes literature tick,” Charlie explains.
Hill’s second novel Books is due out in November, and having set his first The Space Between Things in Moseley, he feels a particular affinity with the area:
“Jim Crace once described Moseley as an ‘anti-suburb’ and I think that sums up the attitude of the place.”
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In its three years, Pow-Wow Litfest has welcomed both mainstream headliners and some of the wilder children of the publishing world. In 2011 cult Midlands author Joel Lane appeared alongside Stuart Estell, a former member of The Fall.
And continuing a taste for the esoteric, this year’s line-up features M John Harrison, a multi-award-winning author who has been genre busting for 40 years.
Big commercial names have also graced the stage, including Booker short-listed authors Clare Morrell and Alison Moore.
This year’s headliner is one of Granta magazine’s Best of Young British authors, Adam Foulds.
Also on the bill is Richard House, a lecturer from the University of Birmingham who has just been long-listed for this year’s Booker Prize and will be reading from and talking about his multi-media novel The Kills.
Charlie adds: “Nothing is considered too obscure or too popular for public consumption, and the success of this formula is reflected in the fact that this year we have attracted major sponsorship. Ashes’ backers Investec are on board, together with many local businesses.
“We’re also in a position to extend the festival to two days. A programme of workshops takes place at the Moseley Exchange on Saturday, September 14, featuring themed sessions and one-to-one consultations for aspiring writers.
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Then, on the Sunday, we have the usual mix of bonhomie, lively debate and informed bookchat in the back garden of one of the city’s best pubs.”
* Pow-Wow Litfest takes place in Moseley on September 14 and 15.
Early bird tickets are available for £15 from and include £5 of raffle tickets for a grand draw with prizes worth £1000.
Workshops for authors
Workshops at the Moseley Exchange on September 14 include:
* A book doctor surgery with ex-Tindal St Press Senior Editor Luke Brown.
* Writing For Children with Karen King.
* Writing Flash Fiction with Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn
* Poetry with Matt Nunn
* Self-publishing with David Wake
The line-up on September 15 includes:
* Adam Foulds, multi-award winner and one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists 2013.
* M John Harrison, legendary writer of speculative fiction.
* Richard House, lecturer at University of Birmingham and long-listed for this year’s Booker Prize.
* Suzi Feay, influential book reviewer and literary prize judge.
* Danuta Kean, publishing analyst and cultural commentator.
* Stan Nicholls, award winning, million selling author of the Orcs series.
* Mark Edwards, bestselling self-published crime writer.
* Lucy Luck, literary agent.
* Author Andrew Killeen , director of Pow-Wow Litfest, believes the event will provide support to writers trying to get published
If I’d known what I was getting myself into by founding a literary festival, I probably would never have done it. But I’m glad I did.
My initial motivation, as with everything Pow-Wow does, was to provide people with the support I would have liked when I was trying to get published. Writing is such a lonely affair. You sit in a room on your own for months at a time, talking to the imaginary people in your head, and it’s very easy to lose all sense of proportion. In particular, it’s easy to forget that publishing is a business.
I wanted local writers to have a chance to hear from the people who decide who gets published and who gets rejected; from authors who have been there, done it and come back with the scars; from people who understand how the business works. I wanted to create an opportunity for them to get together and share their stories. Most of all I wanted them to have fun.
I’m lucky enough to run a writers’ group at the Prince of Wales in Moseley. Keith and Diane believe that a pub is not just a place to sell drinks, but that it should be at the heart of its community. They were immediately enthusiastic about the idea of hosting a literary festival, and have continued to be wonderfully supportive. They offered the beer garden, and I was delighted.
Pow-Wow Litfest would be informal, friendly, outdoor: more like a rock festival than a stuffy literary event.
I got together with Charlie Hill, another Birmingham writer, and we concocted a plan. The daytime would consist of sessions with publishers, agents and authors, and the evening would be a “literary cabaret”. We began to approach people, and I was surprised to find that most were flattered to be asked, and generous in their responses. Knowing that we had no funding or sponsorship, some even waived their fees.
Serendipity came to our aid once more when we started looking for someone to run the onstage sessions. One of the regular attendees at my writing group, Steph Vidal-Hall, turned out to be not only a talented writer but also an experienced facilitator and public speaker. We had a venue, speakers and a host; what else did we need?
Ah yes, an audience. This is where things became difficult. Writers are, by their nature, solitary creatures, like tigers. They come from every walk of life, every age group, social class and community. Getting the message to them proved to be difficult. We spent the summer emailing, facebooking and handing out flyers, but with a couple of weeks to go we had only sold a handful of tickets.
It was Artsfest that saved us. For two days, I stood on New Street, talking to strangers until I was hoarse, selling tickets, signing people up to the email list. It seems to me tragic and shortsighted that Birmingham City Council has scrapped this event, which for years has been so important in bringing the city’s creative community in contact with audiences.
A festival is like a wedding: you spend months in planning, imagining and organising, then suddenly the day comes and goes in such a rush that you can almost miss it. I made sure that I took a moment to stand and look around, at the packed tent, at the lively discussion taking place, and to think: wow, we did it.
We are now in our third year, and the festival continues to evolve. This year we have a formal committee, and sponsorship from local businesses such as I Had One Of Those, a retro sweet and toy shop in Kings Heath, as well as from University of Birmingham and Investec Wealth and Investment. Because of this generous support we are able to expand to a second day, with small group workshops on September 14, as well as editor and author Luke Brown offering one-to-one consultations on local writers’ manuscripts. The main event on September 15 features Adam Foulds, M John Harrison and Richard House among the literary stars.
The festival is enormously hard work, and has caused me grief, stress and not a few grey hairs. But I’m sure on the day I’ll find a moment to take it all in.
* Andrew Killeen will be conducting a series of creative writing workshops at mac from September.