The Manchester Writing School at Manchester Met, the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Bloomsbury Publishing and special guest host Dave Haslam are delighted to present this special event to launch Adam O’Riordan’s first short story collection The Burning Ground.

“This is a wonderful, beguiling collection of short stories. Written with a cool, knowing lyricism, they haunt and enthral” – William Boyd.

Adam O’Riordan became the Wordsworth Trust Centre for British Romanticism’s youngest ever poet-in-residence in 2008 and his first of poems collection, In the Flesh, won a 2011 Somerset Maugham Award. His second collection of poetry A Herring Famine is published in February March 2017. He is Chair of Judges for the annual Manchester Poetry Prize and from January 2017 will be Academic Director of the Manchester Writing School. In his debut short story collection, The Burning Ground, an English writer focuses his gaze on America's West Coast, moving from fractured lives in remote, sun-scorched towns to the charged hum of Venice Beach. Written with an outsider's keen eye, the collection paints an intimate portrait of diverse lives, in a work of remarkable beauty and poignancy.

Manchester Writing is a series which explores the techniques authors use and choices they make when writing, and debate issues arising from their work. Adam will be reading from and talking about his work and in conversation with Dave Haslam, answering questions from the audience. The evening will open with a drinks reception, and copies of The Burning Ground will be available from Blackwell’s bookstall, with signing and mingling/conversation after the event.

Bookings can be made here