Off the shelf

Dusty, austere, cobwebbed, and long past their best (and that’s just the librarians!): the stereotypical view of libraries still persists. So why would a contemporary, stylish, urban and innovative festival like Queer Up North (QUN) want to have anything to do with them? The answer lies in our approach to our audiences. The festival is unashamedly queer in both content and tone, but if its attenders were solely drawn from Canal Street and the self-defining LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community, then it would have failed. Queer culture is interesting per se, and QUN presents and produces the best of it for all to see and enjoy. To do so effectively, we need to reach beyond our obvious venues, and find audiences that would never otherwise come to the festival. But libraries play a role far beyond merely providing a venue.

QUN’s partnership with the libraries in Greater Manchester is based around a strong relationship with Time To Read, the partnership in the North West working to encourage new readers into libraries. It all started in 2006, when QUN and Time To Read held literary events in each of the ten metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester, featuring authors such as Jamie O’Neill, Jake Arnott and Stella Duffy – key figures in contemporary queer literature, but also writers with a substantial general following. The partnership continued into the 2007 festival. I went to an event in Walkden Library – seven miles up the A6 from the centre of Manchester – that embodied what we were trying to achieve. The guest writer was Maureen Duffy: a fine and distinctive voice across poetry, drama and novels, and a veteran of the intellectual battles for equality in the 1960s and 70s, but not as well-known an author as she deserves to be. Nonetheless, Walkden Library pulled out all the stops, worked hard on everyone from their loyal reading groups to their occasional punters, challenging the idea that the good people of Walkden wouldn’t be interested in queer writing. The result? A packed house – with an audience very different to one that you’d find at a city-centre QUN event.

So where now for QUN and the libraries? We’ve learnt two main things: that libraries are willing to work with us on a deeper engagement between readers and writers than is possible with many more traditional venues; and, contrary to stereotype, that library audiences are thirsty for the new, the untested, the bold and the maverick, particularly when encouraged by reader development workers who know their local audiences, but also know good writing when they see it.

Autumn 2008 will see QUN’s new commitment to young people and to learning and participation entwine with its library partnerships, to explore one of the most exciting trends in contemporary literature: queer teen fiction. Some of the most unusual and creative approaches to gender and sexuality are now being found in literature that’s written specifically for teenagers. We’ll be working with the libraries to bring young people across Greater Manchester – whether gay, straight, don’t know or mind-your-own-business – together with the best writers in the field. At QUN, we aim above all to promote the dissident, the maverick, the challenging and the complex. Our partnership with the libraries in Greater Manchester, far from covering us in cobwebs, gives us another means of doing just that.