What is the power of darkness in fiction and poetry? And is there something about the north of England that makes its dark nights irresistible to writers? Andrew and Jacob will be in conversation with Jean Sprackland and reading from their work.
Andrew Michael Hurley is the author of five novels. The Loney (2014) won the 2015 Costa First Novel Award and the 2016 British Book Industry awards for Debut Novel and Book of the Year. Devil’s Day (2017) jointly won the 2018 Royal Society of Literature Encore Award. Starve Acre (2019) was adapted into a film starring Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark. Barrowbeck (2024) was based on his award-winning Radio 4 series, Voices in the Valley. And his latest novel, Saltwash, was published in October 2025. Andrew lives and works in Lancashire.
Jacob Polley was born and grew up in Cumbria. His fourth book of poems, Jackself, won the 2016 T.S. Eliot Prize for poetry, the judges describing it as ‘a firework of a book; inventive, exciting and outstanding in its imaginative range and depth of feeling.’ A poet of the uncanny and the startlingly lyrical, Jacob’s work explores his rural upbringing, the forces of tradition and history, and the power of speech as it approaches song. His 2009 novel, Talk of the Town, which is set in and around Carlisle, won the 2010 Somerset Maugham Award. He’s also written radio plays and film scripts, and collaborated with lots of people to make art, sound and performance work. He’s Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University and lives with his family on the North East coast.
This event is part of Night Vision, a reading series at Manchester Poetry Library curated by Jean Sprackland to celebrate the publication of her new non-fiction book, Night Vision (Cape, 2025). As the nights draw in, join us for three events exploring the meanings and mysteries of darkness, and the ways in which poets, writers and photographers respond to it.
