Waterstones High Street

The Poetry Society’s Stanza group meets monthly in Birmingham Waterstones throughout the year. It’s free to attend and is open to all poetry lovers and practitioners from expert to beginner. In this special Festival session Roz Goddard will be talking to poet Wayne Holloway-Smith whose first collection, Alarum, was…

Finally, The Book Of Dust has arrived! Come and take part in the Big His Dark Materials Quiz and win prizes to celebrate the launch of The Book Of Dust Volume One. If you get your copy of the book from us on release, you will also get an EXCLUSIVE stamp to commemerate the date! This is a free event but please…

Our Poetry Society Stanza group is free to attend and is open to all poetry lovers and practitioners from expert to beginner! Run by former poet laureate Roz Goddard on a monthly basis, there will be poetry workshops, visits from poets and poetry publishers, opportunities to improve your performance of poetry and much…

This will be a live recording of the Brum Radio Poets show, to be broadcast at the end of November and features 4 of the most exciting poets currently performing in the UK and the Midlands. The showcase brings together a nationally renowned poet, an established regional performer and two talented poets from Birmingham.

We are very excited to have Dave Hill joining us in store to sign copies of his new autobiography, So Here It Is. Slade’s music and style dominated and defined the 1970s. With six consecutive number one singles they were the UK’s number one group and sold millions of records all over the world. At their peak, Slade…

Award winning author of The Loney, Andrew Michael Hurley, joins us for the evening to discuss his new novel, Devil's Day. Every autumn, John Pentecost returns to the farm where he grew up to help gather the sheep down from the moors for the winter. Very little changes in the Endlands, but this year, his grandfather…

We are very excited to have five contributors from Dividing Lines in store in discussion with Jonathan Davidson from Writing West Midlands. A wonderful collection of stories shortlisted for The Asian Writer Short Story Prize which introduces 13 exciting new voices and their writing. We will be joined in store by…

Celebrate National Poetry Day with a relaxed evening of poetry, hosted by Jewellery Quarter publisher Emma Wright and featuring special guests Rakhshan Rizwan and Megan Beech. Sign up to an open-mic slot on the door to read a poem on the theme of freedom (by yourself or bring along a poem by someone else). If you want…

Waterstones Birmingham is incredibly excited to invite you to an evening with Ben Aaronovitch. There's something going bump on the Metropolitan line and Sergeant Jaget Kumar knows exactly who to call. It's PC Peter Grant's speciality … * *Only it's more than going 'bump'. Traumatised travellers have been…

Waterstones Birmingham would like to invite you to an evening with June Sarpong MBE, discussing her book, Diversify. In Diversify, June Sarpong MBE puts the spotlight on six marginalised groups, including women, those living with disabilities, and the non-cis community, and reveals how a lack of inclusivity limits our…

At once amusingly abstract and perplexingly poignant, *Fortune Cookie *is Jenna Clake’s debut collection. These poems deal with the everyday and ordinary: living with a partner, friendships, and chronic insomnia. At the same time, they contain absurd worlds: Animals can talk, boyfriends are imagined or might be seals…

We are excited to have the cricket broadcasting legend Henry Blofeld joining us to sign copies of his new book, Over and Out. His voice is the sound of summer to thousands of cricket lovers all over the world. This autobiography is a celebration of his career commentating on the sport he loves. He has been the voice of…

Join Holly Bourne to celebrate the release of her new blockbuster of a novel, ***It Only Happens in the Movies.*** Try out the movie-themed photo-booth, then hear Holly talk about her books to YouTuber and author Hannah Witton, followed by some hilarious games where we’ll be putting Holly’s YA and movie knowledge to the…

Waterstones Birmingham is very excited to invite you to the launch of The Hwanung Solution with author, David Middleton and special guests. The Hwanung Solution is David's third novel in a series of Bond-like adventures written as a mix of fiction and un-nerving facts. Designed to entertain but to also inform about…

We are incredibly excited to invite you to an evening with Owen Broomfield (AKA Hulk) discussing his new book, I Ain't Mad at Ya. I Ain’t Mad at Ya’ is a document of the social, cultural and political realities of growing up in the 60’s/70’s, as a black youth on the Aston/Handsworth border. Owen exposes the issues…

We are incredibly excited to have the wonderful Joe Hill joining us in store to sign copies of his new collection of short novels, Strange Weather. One autumnal day in Boulder, Colorado, the clouds open up in a downpour of nails, splinters of bright crystal that tear apart anyone who isn't safely under cover. *‘Rain…

We are delighted to be supporting the launch of this new book by Caroline Archer-Parré and Malcolm Dick. Published by Liverpool University Press, this book explores an interdisciplinary approach to John Baskerville’s life and work as a Birmingham inventor, entrepreneur and artist, and provides an original contribution to…

Up and coming regional writers from the Room 204 writer development programme run by Writing West Midlands will be presenting a rich variety of their work during the Birmingham Literature Festival. Catch some of these Literary Allsorts at a pre-festival event at Waterstones on Wednesday 27 September, 6.30pm…

We are very excited to have Stephen Aryan in store to celebrate the launch of his latest novel, Mageborn. *It's been ten years since the battlemage war, where thousands died as mages sundered the earth and split the sky. * * Habreel believes eradicating magic is the only way to ensure a lasting peace. He will do…

THE MONSTERS ARE BACK! Following the success of “Murphy and the Monsters”, author B.B.Taylor is proud to announce that the second book in this delightfully funny picture book series, “Murphy and the Monsters Itch” will be released in October 2017. Illustrated by Holly Bushnell, the book tells the storie of young Murphy…

Have you ever wished upon a star? Well Theo did… It’s Christmas Eve and Theo – left at home with a babysitter – sees an odd-looking star out of his window and decides to make a wish. He wishes that he had some friends to keep him company. Moments later the Christmas decorations begin to disentangle themselves from the…

Waterstones Birmingham would like to invite you to an evening with Michael D. Carroll discussing Retrographic. Through the careful selection of striking images and dedicated colourisation research, Retrographic takes the reader on a visual tour of the distant past. Many of these moments are already burned into our…

We are very excited to have Duncan Crowe and James Peak in store with us to discuss their novel, Scoundrels. Duncan Crowe and James Peak are old friends who spend a lot of time in the pub, swapping stories and occasionally writing them up - chiefly as an antidote to their day jobs as an award-winning director and radio…

Whether you write short fiction yourself or appreciate just reading it there will be something for you to enjoy. We will have interesting discussions around individual pieces, conduct workshops to help us understand short fiction better and there will also be the opportunity to share any stories that you may have written…

Join us for a showcase of short stories with their roots firmly in the region, commissioned by the West Midlands Readers’ Network. Five writers have worked with members of four readers’ groups in the West Midlands to create four new short stories, each one locally-sourced but totally original. This is a wonderful…

Join us for a musical evening of YA with Chris Russell (Songs about A Girl, Songs about Us), Eleanor Wood (Becoming Betty), Sophia Bennett (Love Song), Sheena Wilkinson (Street Song) and Rhian Ivory, talking bands, singing, song writing and everything inbetween. Chris might get his guitar out! Where else will you…

Join us for an evening with the incredible Lindsey Davis to celebrate the paperback release of her novel, The Third Nero. *Flavia Albia's day-old marriage is in trouble - her new husband may be permanently disabled and they have no funds. So when Palace officials ask her to help expose a plotter in their midst she is…

We are incredibly excited to have Tony Coton and Howard Gayle in store with us for the evening discuss their books with Tim Arstall of Brum Radio. Tony Coton: Rejected by Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa as a teenager, Coton became a professional footballer the hard way, grafting as an amateur footballer…

Two famous and powerful men of the late Victorian and early Edwardian era, Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914) and George Cadbury (1839-1922), towered over one of the great cities of the British Empire – Birmingham. Together, they offer a fascinating window into the rapidly changing world in which they lived and the…

Waterstones Birmingham would like to invite you to an evening of poetry and stories from three wonderful women. Katy Wareham Morris will be performing poetry from her collaborative pamphlet with Ruth Stacey, Inheritance. Ruth Stacey will be reading poems from Inheritance and her collection, Queen, Jewel, Mistress.

Burning Eye are to Spoken Word what City Lights were to the Beat Generation: indispensable champions of a literary movement that is changing the world of poetry. Publishers Jenn Hart and Clive Birnie introduce a lively poetry showcase featuring Kate Fox, Toby Campion and Shagufta Iqbal to launch Burning Eye’s new…

Come and join us in our cafe for our ever popular monthly open mic event, Waterstones On The Mic. You are welcome to perform poetry, spoken word, music and anything in between! Or simply come and watch the show. For more details, visit the facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/waterstonesonthemic/

We The Unicorns is the voice of the YouTube generation at the heart of the YouTube community. The site reports on YouTube news, creates features and articles on the hottest topics and YouTubers, gives tips on who to follow, hosts quizzes and debates and create their own YouTube videos, from Vlogging 101 how-to videos, to…

Speaker: Lee Robert McStein Lee Robert McStein is a 3D scanning and production specialist and has produced hundreds of 3D scans of artefacts and sites both in the UK and Egypt. Lee has trained students in photogrammetry techniques from various educational institutions including Macquarie University and the American…

Speaker: John Wal l John Wall first became interested in Egypt because of the Tutankhamen exhibition in 1972 and has visited many times. He is a member of many societies and is a patron of the EES, SARS and the Friends of Nekhen. His specialist areas are the 20th dynasty and pyramids and has presented his work on both…

We are very excited to invite you to a day of activities and readings with author Robert. A. Brown and illustrator Chris Lee all to do with his exciting children’s novel, William the Hedgehog Boy There will be: A talk about hedgehogs (with a little audience participation!), readings from the book, colouring, drawing…