Calibre Audio, the pioneering audiobook charity celebrating 50 years of making reading accessible to everyone, has announced two stellar in-person events at The Library of Birmingham on Monday 21 October as part of its ongoing Calibre Conversations Festival.
At 4.30pm, Louie Stowell, the acclaimed writer of the Loki: A Bad God’s Guide series of books will give an interactive talk on how she summons her writing powers and crafts stories both witty and magical in an event aimed at young people, carers and new writers alike. At 7.15pm, Midlands author Natalie Marlow will discuss her crime novels Needless Alley and its follow up The Red Hollow as well as her fascination for the people and landscapes of the Midlands along with the twists and turns that uncover her journey as a novelist to date. Tickets to the event are priced at £5 and are available via the Calibre website Also on 21 October, Calibre Audio will announce the winner of its recent ‘Inclusive Voices’ competition which encouraged everyone to share original stories of 550 words or less that feature a character with a print disability. Calibre Conversations is a new online book festival featuring acclaimed author interviews and panel discussions available now through the Calibre Audio website. Other Calibre Conversations author interviews available to watch on the Calibre Audio website include: Mat Osman (The Ghost Theatre), The Magazine Girls (Authors of a new book on their journalistic experiences on popular magazines in 60s-80s), Candy Gourlay (Bone Talk and Wild Song), Philip Reeve (Mortal Engines) and Sarah McIntyre (Adventure Mice) and Joe Haddow (Art Is Everywhere). Upcoming interviews also include Roger Moorhouse (Author and historian), Lisa Jewell (None of This is True), Jenny Ireland (Winner of PRH’s WriteNow competition). About Natalie MarlowNatalie Marlow is a West Midlands native, deeply connected to her roots in Birmingham. A graduate of the University of East Anglia’s MA in Crime Writing, she is currently pursuing her PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her writing is heavily influenced by her working-class background and her family history, particularly her great-grandmother’s life on the Birmingham canals. Marlow’s dedication to the craft has earned her a spot on Val McDermid’s prestigious New Blood panel at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival in 2023. About Louie StowellLouie Stowell was born in London and has lived there ever since, except for a short stint in Watford to study advertising. She’s worked as a copywriter, cartoonist, PR and in-house non-fiction writer, and was Publisher at Ladybird/Penguin Random House before writing full-time. Her debut, THE DRAGON IN THE LIBRARY, was published by Nosy Crow in 2019 and Walker Books in the US, followed by THE MONSTER IN THE LAKE in January 2020 and THE WIZARD IN THE WOOD in 2021. OTHERLAND, a standalone middle-grade novel, followed in 2021 with Nosy Crow. The first book in her new series with Walker Books, LOKI: A BAD GOD’S GUIDE TO BEING GOOD, was an instant #3 Sunday Times (UK) bestseller. Louie grew up on a diet of Tolkien, Doctor Who, Ursula Le Guin, live action role play, Just William, 2000AD, Elfquest, John Christopher and Nicholas Fisk. She loves comics, science fiction, fantasy and anything funny. At university, she wrote her thesis on comics, and once won a prize for Anglo-Saxon. About Calibre Audio
- impaired visiona learning disability such as dyslexiaa cognitive impairment such as head trauma or strokelong covida physical dexterity problem such as Multiple Sclerosis, Motor Neurone Disease, Parkinson’s, arthritis, paralysis, terminal illness or early dementia