Centre for New Writing Fellows 2026: Inua Ellams and Gurnaik Johal

We are thrilled to partner with the University of Manchester's Centre for New Writing for an event with their Writer Fellows of 2026, Inua Ellams and Gurnaik Johal. The authors will be reading from and discussing their work.

Doors: 6.30pm, Starts: 6.45pm

Tickets are £4 or admission is free when purchasing a copy of the book in advance.

About The Half-God of Rainfall:

There is something about Demi. When this boy is angry, rain clouds gather. When he cries, rivers burst their banks and the first time he takes a shot on a basketball court, the deities of the land take note.

His mother, Modupe, looks on with a mixture of pride and worry. From close encounters, she knows Gods often act like men: the same fragile egos, the same unpredictable fury and the same sense of entitlement to the bodies of mortals.

She will sacrifice everything to protect her son, but she knows the Gods will one day tire of sports fans, their fickle allegiances and misdirected prayers. When that moment comes, it won't matter how special he is. Only the women in Demi's life, the mothers, daughters and Goddesses, will stand between him and a lightning bolt.

About Saraswati:

When the waters of the Saraswati, a river of legend, start to rise in a corner of northern India, seven scattered descendants of a forbidden marriage are unexpectedly swept up in its current. Satnam, adrift from his life in London, is drawn into a contentious scheme to restore the river. Nathu, an archaeologist, ventures from Nairobi to a dig site that might reveal artefacts of a lost civilisation. And elsewhere in former lands of empire - in Singapore, Canada, Mauritius and Pakistan - the ripples are felt across generations. Gurnaik Johal's panoramic debut deftly animates the passions that bind us to our histories and each other.

About the authors:

Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is a poet, playwright and performer, graphic artist and designer, and founder of The Midnight Run (an arts-filled, night-time, urban walking experience); The Rhythm and Poetry Party (The R.A.P Party) which celebrates live literature and music; Poetry + Film / Hack (P+F/H) which celebrates poetry and film.

Identity, Displacement & Destiny are reoccurring themes in his work, where he tries to mix the old with the new: traditional African oral storytelling with contemporary poetics, paint with pixel, texture with vector. His books are published by Flipped Eye, Akashic, Nine Arches, Penned In The Margins and Bloomsbury.

Gurnaik Johal is a writer from West London and an Observer Best New Novelist 2025.His 2022 collection We Move won the Somerset Maugham Award and the Tata Literature Live! Prize. Its opening story won the Galley Beggar Short Story Prize. Saraswati, his debut novel, was shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize.

If you cannot make the event but would like a dedicated copy of the book, please email [email protected] or call us on 0161 274 3331.

Our event format is usually a 45 minute discussion between the author and interviewer, followed by a chance for audience members to ask questions. There will be the opportunity to get your book signed/dedicated after the event. Events are a brilliant opportunity to discover new books, meet authors and likeminded readers and learn something new.

Support your local bookshop and help us keep the Manchester literary scene vibrant and exciting. You can follow us on Eventbrite and social media (@BlackwellsMCR) to keep up to date on upcoming events.

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