Not the Oxford Literary Festival 2012

Tomorrow The Oxford Literary Festival announces its 2012 programme. So I thought we should probably get there first for the most exciting literary event in Oxford next year, Not the Oxford Literary Festival

(Lucy Ayrton and Penny Goring at the 2011 Not the Oxford Literary Festival)

Two years ago, a few of us at Year Zero wanted to put on a gig at Oxford's (and the UK's) best bookstore, The Albion Beatnik. We were at the same time rather frustrated by the high admission prices at The Oxford Literary Festival, as well as the lack of representation of the incredible underground and spoken word scene Oxford has. So we decided to put on our own show. The first Not the Oxford Literary Festival, held the week of the festival on March 24 2010, lasted about an hour.

But it was a fun, fabulous hour. And it went down in history as the reason I wear a red glove every time I gig. A Year Zero fan had come over form Germany for the main festival but wanted to see us as well. But he didn't know where the Albion Beatnik was. He spied my glove through the window, came in, and since then the red glove has been my lucky charm.

Last year we decided to do it again and we had an even more fabulous, diverse line-up including slam poetry and electronica.

And people started asking about 2012. So 2012's Not the Oxford Literary Festival is spreading. This time there will be two days, March 27th and 28th, both based at the fabulous Albion Beatnik, and promising some of the very best, diversest literary fabulousness, just like you'd expect from eight cuts gallery. Watch this space - and if you're interested in reading something leave a comment!!

2012 Schedule (with more events TBA - if you have fantastic ideas for events do leave a comment!!)

Tuesday 27 March - Verruca Music (evening)

(Stuart Estell and Haiku Salut perform an extract from Verruca Music at Pow-Wow Literary Festival)

Writer and musician Stuart Estell performs his novel Verruca Music in full for the first time. Music, words, lyricism, tears, humour, and delight as Stuart takes us into teh world of a man who tries to battle depression by picking his feet. Accomplished on half a dozen instruments, Stuart, who has performed with The Fall, is one of the most entertaining spoken word performers around today, and this, we believe, is the best novel of 2011. The performance will last 2 and a half hours in total but you are free to come and go at will.

Wednesday 28 March - Poets vs Proseurs (evening)

some of the best writers of poetry and prose duel it out for your delight to decide which format lends itself best to live performance. Featuring Not the Booker Prize winner Micahel Stewart, Hammer & Tongue's Lucy Ayrton, Anna Hobson and many more - and open mic

And don't forget our all night think-in/drink-in on March 30th

Think-in/Drink-in

First, apologies for the temporary radio silence. I'm now well and truly back.

Some of you will know that for the past two years I've run Not the Oxford Literary Festival, an alternative to the regular festival showcasing the fabulous, and local, creativity that never usually gets a look in. It's been such a success that in 2012 we're making a whole week of it, and first and foremost this is an invitation to come and enjoy the wonderfulness - even if you're in Oxford for the main festival, come and join us for a night.

Second, it's a call for ideas - we have three nights spoken for at our amazing venue, The Albion Beatnik Bookstore, but if you have something you're burning to put on let me know - the more creative and outlandish the better.

Finally, I want to say a bit about the thing I'm most excited about. Oxford closes too early. As a city, and as a creative venue. For a while now The Albion Beatnik has made a stand against this and helped to remind people in what is supposed to be one of the UK's leading cities of culture that there are, in fact, not 8 or even 16 but 24 hours in a day, and that these are all equally available for creative purposes. And we want the festival to embody that.

Whether your night is just beginning, or you are heading home from the mainstream festival in search of something more stimulating, drop in to our all night festival of wonders, a place where manifestos will be written, thoughts pulled to their breaking point, performances honed, old favourites murdered on the guitar, films screened, and research, er, researched. Highlights include:

Gin Soaked Sheets

join performer and poetry workshopper Lucy Ayrton as she carries out the world's first scientific study on the effects of gin on creative output

zine workshop - by the end of the night something wonderful will be created that you can take away in your hands

improvlog - creative juices flowing? Let them run then upload the results as part of a global online creative think-in

guerrilla poetry - wouldn't you love to walk into work one morning and find that your route was full of poems? Wouldn't it be better still to make that happen for someone else?

This is your part -have a talk you want to give, an idea or poem you want to share, something you want to teach people how to do, or just want to be part of something fabulous: this is where I add your name and links

Year Zero (not) at the Oxford Literary Festival

Dropping the Beat: Year Zero Live at The Albion Beatnik, Walton Street, Oxford 24th March, 6pm, FREE

If you want to spend lots of money listening to the same old same old from the middle of the mainstream, then you may want to go to the official site for the Oxford Literary Festival.




But if you want to comeand hear the most exciting contemporary literature there is, FOR FREE, in Oxford, at Oxford’s best and coolest bookstore, The Albion Beatnik, then hang around here, learn about Year Zero Writers, the globally acclaimed international collective turning their back on the publishing world and delivering the very best literature, direct to readers. Stop and download all our books, including 6 full-length novels, FREE, then come along and hear.





reading from SKIN BOOK at the last Year Zero gig at The Albion Beatnik


Our very first gig was held at Oxford’s coolest shop, The Albion Beatnik, back last October. And we loved it there so much we’ve foisted ourselves upon poor Dennis once again.


The Albion Beatnik is everything an Independent bookstore should be – it serves coffee in mugs you can hand pick from the shelf (I always drink out of Sylvia Plath, and there’s not many can say that :p); it specialises in books on jazz and by and about the Beat Poets; it has an in-house artist; and it’s an incredible venue for reading and music.


This gig promises to be extra special because it’s slap bang in the middle of the Oxford Literary Festival, and Year Zero intend to show the literary establishment just what live literature SHOULD be, and put on a party that no one will forget. Oh, and there may just be a little announcement…


In keeping with the spirit of this fantastic venue, we will stuff the programme full of our work that’s been influenced by Beat culture:
Daisy Anne Gree – The Dead Beat
Dan Holloway – Songs from the Other Side of the Wall; A Life Drawn Freehand
Larry Harrison – Glimpses of a Floating World
Ali Cooper – The Girl on the Swing

STOP PRESS! Music and poetry will be provided by the amazing Christi Warner. Christi is a Namibian singer, songwriter, playwright & poet: “a wordsmith with a stylistic savvy and has a voice that can be gentle as an angel’s breath or on occasion, caustic as a lemon tart.” (Randall Parish, U.S based marketer & reviewer). Her music “isn’t fast-food R&B. It’s the underground nu-soul classic that your mother said you should put on repeat…” (Namibian Sun Newspaper).

You can hear Christi here.