fiction Archives • Huddersfield Literature Festival

Stu Hennigan – Keshed

Yorkshire writer, poet and musician Stu Hennigan talks about his dark, complex, and visceral debut novel Keshed, an unflinching character study exploring class, belonging, fatherhood and conflicting ideals of modern masculinity. (Note: strong language and adult themes).

In the derelict shell of what was once his family home, a dying man surveys the wreckage of his former life and drinks himself senseless, haunted by the chain of events that led him there. At heart, Keshed is the story of a relationship struggling to cope with the impossible pressures of raising a child under late-stage capitalism; but it’s also a love letter to the working-class north, from the grinding poverty of Thatcher’s ’80s to the present day.

Stu will be interviewed by author Simon Crump. Refreshments will be available for purchase on the night.

“Stu Hennigan is one of my favourite writers. His voice is unmistakable and always compelling. Keshed, in its presentation of class and fatherhood, displays verve, fearlessness and total commitment to its characters and their world. It’s brutal and beautiful.”
Wendy Erskine, author of The Benefactors

Stu Hennigan is a writer, poet and musician from the north of England. His book Ghost Signs (Bluemoose, 2022) was shortlisted for best non-fiction at the Books Are My Bag Awards and Best Political Book By A Non-Parliamentarian at the Parliamentary Book Awards in 2022/3. His short fiction, essays, poetry, criticism and articles have been published widely in print and online. Keshed is his first novel. 

Wednesday 13 May

7pm-8.30pm

Byram Arcade, Westgate, Huddersfield HD1 1ND

£5, free for Essential carers accompanying a ticket holder, free for University of Huddersfield staff and students

Age guidance: 16+

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/kirklees-council/access-guides/byram-arcade

Book tickets

Access: if you have specific access needs or seating preferences, please contact our Admin team at [email protected] with your request.

Concession & Carers: For further information on concession and essential carer tickets, please visit our FAQ’s page.

Eventbrite note: When purchasing tickets please download the Eventbrite ‘app’ or ‘create an Eventbrite account’. This will facilitate quicker access to your tickets.

20/20 Writing Competition & Launch

Scroll down for information on the live event

Longlist

Thank you to everyone who entered the competition – the standard was incredibly high. Congratulations to the 20 longlisted entrants – and to the highly commended entries. Look out for the shortlist announcement on 14 April.

To read all the Longlisted entries, click HERE.

The 20 longlisted entries are:

A Father’s Son by Terry Lowell

A Negative Image by Alison Deering

All for Her by Kaitlyn Young

Dull Gary by Robin Tones

East by Elodie A Roy

EveryBodies by Dawn Hemming

He Doesn’t Have a Grave by Kate Venables

Killing Two Birds with One Stone by Amanda Barton

Not a Child by Jane Mooney

ShutEye by Jayne West

Sixteen by Lauren Foster

Squirrel and the Squid by Estelle Hargreaves

Strawberry Picking by Elizabeth Barratt-Golding

The Black Soap by Ella Ononugbo

The Cancelling by Gemma Wilson

The Funeral Procession by Pauline Braisher

The Inside-Out World by Tim Taylor

The Stumpery Project by Jo Regan

The Valley by Sue Wright

Travelling Spectrums by Neil Clarkson

Highly commended

Dark Secrets Dangerous Lies by Sheila Frampton

Have I Forgiven You by David John Ward

In Pursuit of Justice by Virginia Crow

Mill Town Meltdown by Lloyd Rivett

Mr Spoon by Irish Hable

The Society of Time Travelling Artists Against Evil by Daniel Joseph Day

Vertigo by Laura Christine Price

About the Competition and Event

At HuddLitFest, we love to champion new and developing writers. To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we are inviting writers aged 16+ to submit an extract of up to 500 words from an unpublished novel, short story or non-fiction work they have written.

From these, members of our Festival team will select a long list of 20, followed by a shortlist of 10 entries. The longlisted entrants will have their work published on our website and will be allocated free entry to the event. Additionally, the 10 shortlisted finalists will be invited to read their work on the night. The judges on the night – including novelist Simon Crump – will then choose a winner, who will receive a £50 book voucher and two runners-up, who will each receive a £10 book voucher.

The competition is free to enter and the rules are listed below.

Important dates:

Sunday 29 March (midnight) – deadline for entries

Thursday 2 April – longlisted entrants notified by email and longlist announced

Tuesday 14 April – shortlist of 10 finalists notified by email and shortlist announced

Thursday 7 May – Launch at Amped

Please note: this competition is for prose only, any poetry sent in will not be entered into the competition. Poets can take part in our Open Mic events or apply for a place at our Poetry Slam.

Access: if you have specific access needs or seating preferences, please contact our Admin team at [email protected] with your request.

Rules:

All submissions must be original work by the entrant, without using AI and which has not been published elsewhere and does not infringe on third-party intellectual property or privacy rights.
Entries must be no more than 500 words. Any words over this amount will not be counted when judging your work.
Each individual may only enter one piece of writing.
Entries should be submitted in a 12-point font, double-spaced lines, and ideally sent as a Word doc attachment by email to: [email protected] using the email subject line: 20/20 Competition. The body of your email must include your name and contact phone number. You can also add up to 50 words of biographical details. Entries will be judged anonymously to create the longlist, so your name should not appear anywhere on the Word doc, just the title of your piece. If you do not have access to Word, you can add your entry to the body of your email and it will be passed on to the judges anonymously.
Your other work can have previously been published or self-published, but your competition entry must be unpublished. You may submit work that you have submitted elsewhere as long as it has not been published by Thursday 7 May
The competition is open to anyone over 16 based in the UK. Ideally you will be available to travel to Huddersfield on Thursday 7 May to perform your work in person on the evening if you are shortlisted. However, we can accept pre-recorded films of you reading your entry, which we will show on a screen on the night, if you are unable to travel due to access issues, neurodiverse conditions or other reasonable circumstances
Entrants must not be team members or Steering Committee members of Huddersfield Literature Festival, or their immediate family members
The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence can be entered into.
The competition is free to enter but if you are able to help towards Festival funds, you can donate £5 or an amount of your choosing through our fundraising page using this link: https://localgiving.org/charity/HLF
Copyright of your work remains with you but the Festival reserves the right to publish your competition extract on the HuddLitFest website and social media.

Thursday 7 May

6pm-7.30pm

Amped, 29 Zetland St, Huddersfield HD1 2RD

£3, free for 20 shortlisted entrants, free for University of Huddersfield staff and students & for essential carers accompanying a ticket holder

Age guidance: 16+

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/huddersfield-literature-festival/access-guides/amped

Book tickets

Access: if you have specific access needs or seating preferences, please contact our Admin team at [email protected] with your request.

Concession & Carers: For further information on concession and essential carer tickets, please visit our FAQ’s page.

Eventbrite note: When purchasing tickets please download the Eventbrite ‘app’ or ‘create an Eventbrite account’. This will facilitate quicker access to your tickets.

Val McDermid – Silent Bones

Bestselling crime writer Val McDermid has sold over 19 million books worldwide, with TV adaptations of her novels including Wire in the Blood and Karen Pirie (both ITV).

Val will be chatting to Helen Scott about her latest Karen Pirie novel Silent Bones.

When a landslide on a Scottish motorway reveals the body of journalist Sam Nimmo, DCI Karen Pirie and her Historic Cases Unit must find out who buried him, and why.

Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, new evidence reopens a closed case and the accidental death of a hotel manager starts to look like murder. Karen and her team begin to untangle a web of lies, one that connects their murder cases with Scotland’s rich and powerful. They will be tested to their limits – and possibly beyond…

Val McDermid is an international number one bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than 40 languages. Her multi-award-winning series and standalone novels have been adapted for TV and radio, most notably the Wire in the Blood series featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan. The Karen Pirie novels have also been adapted for a major ITV series. She divides her time between Fife and Edinburgh.

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Sunday 17 May

2.30pm-3.30pm

North Light Gallery, 78 Armitage Road, Armitage Bridge, Huddersfield HD4 7NR

£12 (£10 conc) free for Essential carers accompanying a ticket holder

Age guidance: 14+

Access information: contact the venue on 01484 340 003

Book tickets

Access: if you have specific access needs or seating preferences, please contact our Admin team at [email protected] with your request.

Concession & Carers: For further information on concession and essential carer tickets, please visit our FAQ’s page.

Eventbrite note: When purchasing tickets please download the Eventbrite ‘app’ or ‘create an Eventbrite account’. This will facilitate quicker access to your tickets.

Polari: Celebrating LGBTQ+ Writing Talent

Enjoy entertaining, heartwarming and thought-provoking performances from a diverse and talented line-up of LGBTQ+ writers.

Hosted by bestselling author and journalist Paul Burston, the evening will showcase the work of the QPOC poet, artist and teacher Jay Gadhia, the poet and theatre maker Roma Havers, and the writer, researcher and historian Jane Traies.

The event will start at 7pm with a 15-minute break, approx finish time 8.45pm.

Other events with these writers: Jane Traies will also take part in a Q&A on her film 3,000 Lesbians Go to York which we are showing on Saturday 9 May, and Paul Burston will be teaching a creative writing workshop, also on Saturday 9 May. See our Events page for more details.

About Polari Founded by author and journalist Paul Burston in a bar in Soho in 2007, award-winning literary salon Polari showcases and celebrates the best in LGBTQ+ poetry and writing. The Polari Prize is the UK’s only book prize for LGBTQ+ writing. It comprises three awards: Book of the Year, Debut book and children’s/YA prize.

Paul Burston is curator and host of award-winning LGBTQ+ literary salon Polari and founder of the Polari Prize book awards for LGBTQ+ writers. In 2016, he featured in the British Council’s Global List of ‘33 visionary people promoting freedom, equality and LGBT rights around the world’. Paul is the author of six novels and five non-fiction books, and the editor of two short-story collections. His bestselling memoir We Can Be Heroes: A Survivor’s Story was published in 2023.

Jay Gadhia is a QPOC poet, artist and teacher. He has always written but has only recently developed his spoken word / performance poetry. His artwork and poetry tend to focus on the Asian queer experience and explore cultural and racial history. A great deal of his work focusses on faith, as well as unpicking the complications of relationships.

Roma Havers is a queer poet, theatre-maker and unsolicited go-go dancer – from your hometown but living in Manchester with their partner, allotment and every stone they’ve ever pocketed. Commissioned by Orchestra’s Live, Manchester City of Literature and Manchester Museum, among many others, they are known for their ‘joyful, communal and tender’ work. They have been published in Ink Sweat and Tears, Verve Poetry Prize (Shortlisted), The North and Under the Radar. Alongside their poetry work, they have produced writer development programmes, mentored many poets and produced work for performance including their show LOB, which toured the North West and Belfast in 2022, with their play Helmet with Laughter Lines being longlisted for the Bruntwood Playwriting prize the same year. They were winner of the 2024 Northern Writers’ Award for Poetry with The Natural Way, their first collection with Carcanet Press.

Jane Traies is a queer historian, writer and storyteller whose work focuses on preserving the stories of marginalised women’s lives. Her best-known book, Now You See Me, is a collection of older lesbian life stories. Her second life-history collection, Free to Be Me, captures the stories of a group of lesbian and bisexual women seeking asylum in the UK. Writing jointly with Jacky Bratton, Jane is also half of the sapphic historical novelist Jay Taverner. Their latest title, Liberty, is the fourth adventure in the ‘Brynsquilver’ series. Jane’s latest book, Three Thousand Lesbians Go to York, tells the story of the York Lesbian Arts Festival, the UK’s largest and longest lasting gathering of lesbian, bi and queer women, and of Libertas!, the bookshop that founded it. A treasure trove of inclusive queer history, 3000 Lesbians includes the memories of Jackie Kay, Stella Duffy, Sarah Waters, Val McDermid, Horse McDonald, festival founder Jenny Roberts and many others who attended or organised the festival.

Friday 8 May

7pm-8.45pm

Amped, 29 Zetland St, HD1 2RA

£9 (£7 conc), free for University of Huddersfield staff and students & essential carers accompanying a ticket holder.

Age Guidance: 16+

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/huddersfield-literature-festival/access-guides/amped

Book tickets

Access: if you have specific access needs or seating preferences, please contact our Admin team at [email protected] with your request.

Concession & Carers: For further information on concession and essential carer tickets, please visit our FAQ’s page.

Eventbrite note: When purchasing tickets please download the Eventbrite ‘app’ or ‘create an Eventbrite account’. This will facilitate quicker access to your tickets.

The ‘Chocolat’ Experience – with Joanne Harris

The million-copy bestselling author of Chocolat, Joanne Harris, teams up with World Master Chef David Greenwood-Haigh to lead you through a chocolate-tasting experience. Plus a performance of scenes from Vianne, Joanne’s most recent novel in the Chocolat story and an author Q&A.

Everyone attending this event will receive a limited-edition tin of Xocolati Rub, created especially for the event by David. Drinks will be available to purchase from the theatre bar.

Joanne Harris (OBE, FRSL) was born in Barnsley in 1964, of a French mother and an English father. She studied Modern and Mediaeval Languages at Cambridge and was a teacher for 15 years, during which time she published three novels, including Chocolat (1999), which was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche. Since then, she has written over 20 more novels, plus novellas, short stories, game scripts, the libretti for two short operas, several screenplays, a stage musical (with Howard Goodall) and three cookbooks. Her books are now published in over 50 countries and have won a number of British and international awards. A passionate advocate for authors’ rights, she lives in Huddersfield with her husband and works from a shed in her garden.

David Greenwood-Haigh’s journey through the world of hospitality and chocolate spans more than four decades. A Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality, a Disciple of Escoffier, and a World Master Chef with the Craft Guild of Chefs, David is a multi-award-winning chef, who brings his experience and insight to Yorkshire kitchens and cocoa farms in West Africa. As a Department for Business and Trade (DTI) Export Champion, David advocates for small-scale producers; he also judges for some of the most prestigious food awards in the world and has collaborated with global food giants. His mission is to inspire, to guide, and to open doors for the next generation of chefs, chocolatiers, and cocoa change-makers. https://www.coeurdexocolat.com/

Saturday 16 May

5pm-6.30pm

Cellar, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Queen Street, Huddersfield HD1 2SP

£10 (£8 conc) free for essential carers accompanying a ticket holder.

Age guidance: 14+

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/huddersfield-literature-festival/access-guides/the-cellar

Book tickets

Access: if you have specific access needs or seating preferences, please contact our Admin team at [email protected] with your request.

Concession & Carers: For further information on concession and essential carer tickets, please visit our FAQ’s page.

Eventbrite note: When purchasing tickets please download the Eventbrite ‘app’ or ‘create an Eventbrite account’. This will facilitate quicker access to your tickets.

An Evening with Ardal O’Hanlon

Star of Father Ted, Death in Paradise and Derry Girls, Ardal O’Hanlon is a much-loved actor, stand-up comedian and bestselling novelist. Join us for an entertaining in-conversation about his extensive career and his latest novel A Plot to Die For, followed by a book signing.

NOTE: booking is through the Town Hall box office for this event.

Book tickets

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About the book

A Plot to Die For is the first in a mystery series for readers who enjoy the warmth of Graham Norton and the mystery of Death in Paradise, all wrapped up in one small Irish town. When beloved celebrity gardener Finn O’Leary returns to his hometown of Abbeyford to care for his aging mother, he is naturally roped into the Tidy Towns committee. But when an alto-baritone drops dead at his mother’s choir practice, Finn finds himself trying to solve a murder – or two.

Ardal O’Hanlon A founding father of Dublin’s contemporary comedy scene, Ardal won the 1994 Hackney Empire New Act of the Year and was catapulted into the world of sitcom. Despite that distraction, he continues to tour his punchy but absurdist life-enhancing comedy worldwide. As well as Father Ted, for which he won a British Comedy Award and Bafta nominations, Ardal’s acting credits include leading roles in Death in Paradise (BBC), Derry Girls (C4), the 2025 feature film Fran the Man and the new Netflix series How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. Ardal has written and presented a number of documentaries and his forays into theatre include God of Carnage (Gate Theatre) and The Weir (West End), for which he received a nomination for an Olivier Award.

He has written an acclaimed bestselling novel, The Talk Of The Town, which was included in the book, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, and in 2022 released his darkly comic second novel, Brouhaha.

Follow Ardal on Instagram @ardalohanlon.

Wednesday 6 May

6.45pm-8pm

Huddersfield Town Hall, Ramsden Street, HD1 2TA

£15 (£12 conc)

Age guidance: 14+ (under 16s should be accompanied by an adult)

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/huddersfield-literature-festival/access-guides/huddersfield-town-hall

Please Note: Booking for this event is through the Town Hall box office only. If you have booked through Eventbrite please cancel your Eventbrite ticket and rebook via the link below.

Book tickets

Access: if you have specific access needs or seating preferences, please contact our Admin team at [email protected] with your request.

Concession & Carers: For further information on concession and essential carer tickets, please visit our FAQ’s page.