Happy New Year from Bradford Libraries

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Happy New Year from Bradford Libraries

150 years of Bradford Libraries

We've got an exciting year ahead as we celebrate 150 years of Bradford Libraries.

Keep an eye out for events and activities taking place in all our libraries and online over the coming months.

Reading Friends

Reading Friends is an exciting UK-wide programme from The Reading Agency in partnership with libraries, developed with funding from the National Lottery Community Fund and the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Reading Friends aims to bring people together to read, chat and share stories.

Reading Friends Happiness Club Online book group. Would you like to join our online book group? This group is a place to share books (provided by us), chat and anything else you want to do! We have room for new members. It usually runs on the third Thursday of the month at 7pm. Why not join us next week Thursday 20th January and come and have a chat and introduce yourself.

If you are interested please email dionne.hood@bradford.gov.uk and you will be sent a link to join. Via Zoom.

Volunteering opportunities with Reading Friends Do you like reading, chatting (and tea and biscuits) and would like to meet new people? Could you help us provide more opportunities for people to get together to read and chat. This could be in a traditional book group, discussion or chat group or a 1-2-1 with someone. You would be trained and fully supported by the library service.

For more information and to express an interest please email - dionne.hood@bradford.gov.uk

Sisterhood. Female only Open-mic. City Library.

Female only open mic
We are back after our successful open-mic event in November and we welcome you to come and join us, in a beautiful space at Bradford Libraries. A safe space to share your poetic words and network with other like minded people.

Join us on January 28th 7.30pm at Bradford City Library BD1 1SD
To join us - either to read or just to listen please book via the link below -

Sisterhood Open Mic Booking

We look forward to meeting you.

Publishing Success for Kate one of our Shipley Library writers group members.

Retired art teacher Kathryn M Holgate penned The Cauldron Cup whilst shielding her son, a renal transplant patient.

She also produced the illustrations for the work, published by Beaten Track Publishing. The book is for children over 5 and is about a witch called Dottie Doolittle, who is invited to watch the final of the Cauldron Cup in the presence of the scary witch queen. Kate is a member of a writing group set-up by Bradford Libraries. "We used to meet on alternate Wednesdays at Shipley Library before the pandemic," said Kathryn. "Now we have our meetings via Zoom."

We hope to resume our writers groups in libraries over the coming months - watch this space for details.

Jumping the Middings Performance

Enjoy an evening of pure nostalgia at the performance of the creative writing and poetry of childhood memories of Bradford in the 1970's.

January 21st 19.00 - 20.30. Kala Sangam

‘Jumping the Middings’ is a project in which Abda Khan and Sharena Lee Satti have delivered creative writing and poetry workshops to participants over the age of 50 to explore and preserve their memories of growing in Bradford in the 1970’s.

This will be an unforgettable evening of a truly nostalgic trip down memory lane captured through the participants' captivating stories and poems.

This project is funded by Bradford Council and supported by Kala Sangam.

For more information and to book click the link below - Jumping the Middings

The Yaffle Prize. Poetry competition.

Our friends at Yaffle, who we've done a number of projects with, are hosting the Yaffle Prize

Poetry submissions are now open - deadline January 31st.The winner of the Yaffle Prize will receive £200. The runner up will receive £50. The third place prize is £25. The winner, runners-up, highly commended poets, and those who make the long list, will be published in our annual YAFFLE PRIZE anthology. The Yaffle Prize is open to anyone writing in the English language, aged over 18. For more information click the link below -

The Yaffle Prize