The minds behind hundreds of
grisly murders will be darkening the streets of Norwich this September, when
they come together for Noirwich – the region’s brand new crime writing
festival.
Taking place from Wednesday
10 September to Sunday 14 September in venues across Norwich, Noirwich has
been launched to highlight the depth and diversity of the popular crime
thriller genre and is a collaboration between the Crime Writers' Association,
University of East Anglia, Waterstones and Writers' Centre Norwich.
Celebrating
the sharpest noir thrillers to contemporary police procedurals, Noirwich
brings five days of author events with
international writers including one of the world’s most loved crime
writers and bestselling author Val McDermid, leading the line-up with
readings and discussion on Friday 12 September.
Other
authors include Sophie Hannah, John Harvey, Eva Dolan and Megan Abbott.
There will
also be two hands-on writing masterclasses on Saturday 13 September where
budding crime authors can learn how to write
innovatively within and around the crime thriller genre, construct gripping characters and learn the knack of creating real suspense.
A free film
screening of ‘The Killer Inside Me’ will also take place over the course of the
festival.
The crime fiction and
thriller market currently represents over a
third of the fiction sector, making it the largest genre by far. And
with one in every three books sold in the UK being a crime novel, the festival
aims to showcase this hugely popular literary genre while attracting big
audiences at all ten events.
Henry Sutton, Senior
Lecturer in Creative Writing at University of East Anglia and award-winning
crime novelist co-founded Noirwich said “Crime fiction is the most
popular literary genre on the planet. It’s only fitting that the place where
Creative Writing began in the UK, recognises the huge appetite for the genre,
with its own dedicated festival.
“Noirwich aims to
showcase not just the very best crime writers and crime writing, but the huge
diversity and internationalism of this most dynamic of genres. From the darkest
psychological thrillers to the most puzzling and innovative police procedurals,
from pure noir to pure entertainment, the emphasis will be on the writers who
have and who are making the biggest impacts.
“Noirwich is all
about quality and originality, turning heads and pushing boundaries.”
In 2012, Norwich became
England’s first UNESCO City of Literature and this festival further cements
this status.
Jonathan Morley, Programme
Director at Writers’ Centre Norwich said:
“Norwich is a unique meeting
place for readers and writers, a place where local communities rub shoulders
with the international literary world. As such we’re delighted to work with our
partners to create a new celebration of the UK’s most popular literary genre,
Crime Writing. From skulduggery at the Playhouse to murderous plotting at our
Crime Writing workshops, we’re confident visitors from across the country will
delight in the first chapter of Noirwich.”
Lucy Santos, Director at the
Crime Writers’ Association is excited to be involved in launching the festival:
“The Crime Writers’
Association is delighted to be part of Noirwich and look forward to many
years of collaboration with even more exciting and innovative events. It is
wholly appropriate that the originators of The Daggers, the oldest and most
prestigious awards in the genre, should be closely involved in such a
celebration of the crime writing genre and, even more wonderfully, to be doing
it in a UNESCO City of Literature.”
The full line-up, tickets
and more information about Noirwich can be found on www.noirwich.co.uk
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