Nicole Tamer interviews the talented poet, dancer and performer, Chanje Kunda.

Tamara Stanton heads to Instituto Cervantes in Deansgate to hear Catalan poets Josep Lluίs Aguiló and Manuel Forcano read from their newly published anthology

Olivia Stevens heads to the Martin Harris Centre to hear celebrated writers Ali Smith and Jackie Kay reflect on the legacy of Sylvia Plath

Emerging poet Helen Isserlis talks to Books Editor Esmé Clifford Astbury

Annie Muir finds manuscripts worth pressing up against the glass for, at the William Blake exhibition

Bad Language’s spoken word event takes an evening in the pub into a realm of uncertainty and suprise

Want to submit your creative writing to Books? Submit poems, stories, etc. to [email protected]

As he nears the end of his degree, Jay Meros looks back on three years of fast food (through haiku)

The anniversary of Plath’s death is a chance to reflect again on the reciprocity of these two factions

Get yourself to a real live speaking words event

We are whole countries caught in cotton

…that this pissy and ungourmet coffee undercompensates for a last night on the tiles and the bourbon with the boys.

Fourteen lines rotate like a weather vane

Closer by the rain

And dry toast, and hardbook books

Each day opens slowly | but the nights are folded up | and concentrated.

On Sunday night we howl

The cotton mill roar in his voice

Nothing is spoken

This is Manchester