THE CUCKOO CAGE Book Launch with Pete Kalu, Karline Smith and Ra Page.

Join us for the launch of THE CUCKOO CAGE - a collection of twelve specially commissioned stories which seek to challenge the Americanised concept of "the superhero". Reading on the night will be contributors Pete Kalu and Karline Smith. The evening will be hosted by editor and Comma Press founder Ra Page.

About the book:

The superhero of comic books and blockbuster movies may be a quintessentially American invention, forever saving the world in skin-tight spandex. But the cultural DNA of the superhero can arguably be traced to a much older, more progressive, British tradition: the larger-than-life folk heroes of historical protests – General Ludd, Captain Swing, Lady Skimmington, and others; semi-fictional identities that ordinary protestors adopted, often dressing up in the process.

In this unique experiment, twelve authors have been tasked with resurrecting that tradition: to spawn a new generation of present-day British superheroes, willing to bring the fight back to British shores and to more progressive causes. From the dimension-jumping statue-toppler, to the shape-shifting single mum raiding supermarkets to stock local foodbanks... these figures offer unlikely new insights into shared, centuries-old political causes, and usher in a new league of proud, British (social justice) warriors...

About the speakers:

Peter Kalu is a poet, fiction writer and playwright. He cut his teeth as a member of Manchester, UK's Moss Side Write black writers workshop and has had nine novels, two film scripts and three theatre plays produced to date. He gained his PhD in Creative Writing, Lancaster University, UK, in 2019.

Born to Jamaican parents who arrived in Britain in the 1960s, Karline Smith was one of the first black female crime writers to deal with the subject of drug gangs in inner-city Britain. She is the author of three novels, Moss Side Massive, which was dramatised by Liverpool’s Unity Theatre, Full Crew, and Goosebumps and Butterflies are Fairy Tales (published by Black Sapphire Press). She is also the author of several short stories, variously published in The City Life Book of Manchester Short Stories (Penguin), M.O.: Crimes of Practice, and Resist (Comma). She is currently working on her fourth novel.

Ra Page is the CEO and co-founder of Comma Press. He has edited over 20 anthologies, most recently The American Way (2021) and The Cuckoo Cage (2022). He is a former journalist and has also worked as a producer and director on a number of short films.

Doors: 18.30, event starts: 18.45

Tickets are £3.00 or free when pre-ordering a copy of the book. THE CUCKOO CAGE will also be available to purchase on the night and Pete, Karline and Ra will be happy to sign copies after the talk. If you would like a signed copy but cannot make the event, please contact us on 0161 274 3331 or manchester@blackwell.co.uk and we can arrange this for you.