Out of Many Lit runs from 4-8 October with a host of events showcasing writers of Jamaican and wider Caribbean heritage and guest contributors — from budding young community writers to national treasures and international names across this five-day festival of literary talent unprecedented in the North.

The launch event on Tuesday 4^th October is the fascinating Laureate to Laureate, with Olive Senior, the Poet Laureate of Jamaica, in conversation with the UK’s Laureate Simon Armitage at the city’s Howard Assembly Room.

On Wednesday 5^th October Olive Senior will host a Laureate Heritage Masterclass for Black writers wanting to use creative writing to explore their heritage, staged in collaboration with the British Library and the National Library of Jamaica.

Also on Wednesday 5^th October is Pass It On, with mother and daughter poets and literary activists Khadijah Ibrahiim and Rheima Robinson showcasing young participants’ creative writing responses to conversations with first- and second-generation West Indians.

Thursday 6^th October will see Kinship, a cabaret-style evening of spoken word and music staged in association with WritersMosaic.

On Friday 7^th October the internationally lauded, multi-award-winning dub poetry pioneer and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson (LKJ) will be in conversation with acclaimed author and broadcaster Gary Younge; LKJ: An Evening with Linton Kwesi Johnson is staged in partnership with Howard Assembly Room.

Out of Many Lit rounds off with Calabash Presents on Saturday 8^th October; Jamaica’s much-loved Calabash International Literary Festival will bring a hint of the Treasure Beach vibe to Leeds for an unmissable, day-long literary take-over of the library curated by Calabash co-founders Kwame Dawes and Justine Henzell. The programme for this includes all of the following:

• Calabash Presents: Binta – Tribute To Jean Binta Breeze 
• Calabash Presents: FYAH UK Ficton Panel
• Calabash Presents: In Conversation – Yvonne Brewster Obe And Kwame Dawes
• Calabash Presents: Lyrics

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