Michael Stewart (born 1971) [1] is an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and playwright. Born and brought up in Salford, he now lives in Bradford. He is currently course leader in Creative Writing at Huddersfield University, [2] editorial manager of Grist Books which he founded, [3] and co-director of the Brontë Centre for Writing and Research in Haworth. [4] He was director of the Huddersfield Literature Festival from 2008 to 2012.[ citation needed ]
Stewart was born in Salford and attended "a failing comprehensive that also 'educated' most of the Happy Mondays", which was demolished soon after he left it. He started work, aged 16, in a factory in Newton Heath, and borrowed books from his local public library to read on his bus journey to and from there. He read Wuthering Heights, having earlier seen the 1939 film, and writes: "Slowly the story and characters drew me in. Somehow they took hold of me and wouldn't let go." [5] He moved to Yorkshire in 1995. [6] He has a PhD from the University of Huddersfield (2015), his doctoral thesis being "Rebooting the lyrical story : structure, viewpoint and aspects of realism in short fiction". [7]
In October 2011, Stewart's debut novel, King Crow (2011) was awarded the Not the Booker Prize by The Guardian newspaper and described as a 'literary sensation'. [8] It follows teenager Paul Cooper's obsession with birds. To escape a troubled home life, Paul compares the people he knows with different species of birds, but he embarks upon a chaotic journey of self-discovery when he befriends a dangerous raven named Ashley. King Crow was selected as a recommended read for World Book Night in April 2012. [9]
Stewart's first short story collection, Mr Jolly, (Valley Press), was published in 2016. Rupert Dastur praised the collection's "cheeky intellectualism, raves and rants, quiet solitude, and humour" and noted that its "major accomplishments involve the extraordinary spread of topics, styles, and characters". [10]
Stewart has won several awards for his scriptwriting, including the BBC Alfred Bradley Bursary Award and the King's Cross Award for New Writing.[ citation needed ] His short fiction has been published in Tears in the Fence , Brand , Riptide, The Reader , and many other places.[ citation needed ]
Stewart is also the creator of The Brontë Stones project, four monumental stones situated in the landscape between the Brontë birthplace in Thornton and the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, inscribed with specially commissioned poems written by Kate Bush, Carol Ann Duffy, Jeanette Winterson, and Jackie Kay. The project was supported by the Bradford Literature Festival and funded by the Arts Council England. The stones are accompanied by four walking trails devised by Stewart in and across the landscape between Thornton and Haworth. They are accompanied by specially commissioned maps, designed and drawn by cartographer, Chris Goddard. [11]
The Brontë Stones is part of Stewart's wider portfolio of literary and cultural projects connected to the Brontës. His novel, Ill Will (2018), published by HarperCollins, responds to Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights , telling the story of Heathcliff 's missing years. His hybrid memoir, Walking the Invisible: Following in the Brontës' Footsteps (2021), follows the Brontës across Northern England and investigates the geographical and social features that shaped their work. It was praised in The Guardian as 'a terrific tribute to the Brontës – and to the landscape that shaped their literature', demonstrating 'how landscape grows in the imagination and lays bare the "invisible" world of the heart and mind'. [12] The chapter on Anne Brontë's last three days in Scarborough was published separately in a limited edition with the title Boiled Milk. [5] In 2020, Stewart was instrumental in obtaining and installing the blue heritage plaque now visible at the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton, which was commissioned by the then owners in association with Bradford Civic Society, along with financial support from locally based supermarket chain Morrisons. The blue plaque was part of Stewart's efforts to bring the Brontë birthplace 'to people's attention and connect it to Haworth'. [13]
Stewart's 2023 poetry collection, The Dogs, was published by Smokestack Books. It touches upon the origin myths of dogs, how they have been viewed by different societies through the centuries and how man co-opted dogs into everyday life. It also looks at the effects of genetic changes on dogs through breeding and imagines a future world where dogs have learned to speak and are demanding better treatment from humans. The Dogs includes illustrations by artist Louis Benoit. The Dogs became an exhibition at Artworks, The Everybody Gallery, Halifax, in the summer of 2023. The exhibition also included sculptures by Moira Benoit and a 3D Soundscape by musicians, Dr Hyunkook Lee and Katia Sochaczewska. [14]
Stewart's television contributions include Britain's Novel Landscapes for Channel 4, Our Great Yorkshire Life for Channel 5, BBC Breakfast , and Countryfile on BBC One.[ citation needed ]
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Stewart has also written for screen. His credits include Just a job and A Black Sheep in the White Swan for Voltage Film (2022), A Few Circles in the Waters for ChalkManVideo (2012), The Reading Room for Screen Yorkshire (2006), and Emmerdale for Yorkshire Television (2003–2004).
Anne Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the youngest member of the Brontë literary family.
Charlotte Nicholls, commonly known as Charlotte Brontë, was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature. She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, which she published under the male pseudonym Currer Bell. Jane Eyre went on to become a success in publication, and is widely held in high regard in the gothic fiction genre of literature.
Emily Jane Brontë was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. She also published a book of poetry with her sisters Charlotte and Anne titled Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell with her own poems finding regard as poetic genius. Emily was the second-youngest of the four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother Branwell. She published under the pen name Ellis Bell.
Haworth is a village on the borders of the metropolitan area of the City of Bradford borough of West Yorkshire, England. Located in the Pennines, Haworth is 3 miles (5 km) south-west of Keighley, 8 miles (13 km) north of Halifax, 10 miles (16 km) west of Bradford and 10 miles (16 km) east of Colne in Lancashire. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhope. Nearby villages include Cross Roads, Stanbury and Lumbfoot.
The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family, born in the village of Thornton and later associated with the village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte (1816–1855), Emily (1818–1848) and Anne (1820–1849), are well-known poets and novelists. Like many contemporary female writers, they published their poems and novels under male pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Their stories attracted attention for their passion and originality immediately following their publication. Charlotte's Jane Eyre was the first to know success, while Emily's Wuthering Heights, Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and other works were accepted as masterpieces of literature after their deaths.
Patrick Branwell Brontë was an English painter and writer. He was the only son of the Brontë family, and brother of the writers Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. Brontë was rigorously tutored at home by his father, and earned praise for his poetry and translations from the classics. However, he drifted between jobs, supporting himself by portrait-painting, and gave way to drug and alcohol addiction, apparently worsened by a failed relationship with a married woman. Brontë died at the age of 31.
Brontë Country is a name given to an area of south Pennine hills west of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. The name comes from the Brontë sisters, who wrote such literary classics as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall while living in the area.
Thornton is a village and former civil parish, within the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, in West Yorkshire, England. It lies 6 miles (9.7 km) to the west of the city centre of Bradford, and together with neighbouring Allerton, had a total resident population in 2001 of 15,004, increasing to 17,276 in 2011 and 18,520 in 2021. Its most famous residents were the Brontës.
The Brontë Parsonage Museum is a writer's house museum maintained by the Brontë Society in honour of the Brontë sisters – Charlotte, Emily and Anne. The museum is in the former Brontë family home, the parsonage in Haworth, West Yorkshire, England, where the sisters spent most of their lives and wrote their famous novels.
Patrick Brontë was an Irish Anglican minister and author who spent most of his adult life in England. He was the father of the writers Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë, and of Branwell Brontë, his only son. Patrick outlived his wife, the former Maria Branwell, by forty years, by which time all of their six children had died as well.
The Brontë Sisters is a 1979 French biographical drama film directed by André Téchiné, who co-wrote the screenplay with Pascal Bonitzer and Jean Gruault. The film stars Isabelle Adjani, Marie-France Pisier and Isabelle Huppert as the Brontë sisters. The cinematography was by Bruno Nuytten. It was a project that Téchiné wanted to make since 1972, but only after the favourable reception of Souvenirs d'en France (1975) and Barocco (1976), he was able to find the necessary financing. Produced by Gaumont, the film's originally running time was cut from three to less than two hours upon its release at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival.
Jeffrey Round is a Canadian writer, director, playwright, publisher, and songwriter, who has encouraged the development of LGBT literature, particularly in Canada. His published work includes literary fiction, plays, poetry and mystery novels.
St Michael and All Angels' Church is the Church of England parish church of Haworth, West Yorkshire. The majority of the structure, which is the third church building on the site, was built between 1879 and 1881. Parts of the original medieval church building, notably the tower, survive.
Keith Malcolm Petyt is a sociolinguist and historian.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
Penistone Hill Country Park is an open space of moorland that is located to 0.31 miles (0.5 km) west of Haworth and 0.62 miles (1 km) north-west of Oxenhope in West Yorkshire, England. The park's highest point is detailed with a trig point which is 1,030 feet (310 m) above sea level. Since 1994, the park has been notified as being an SSSI as part of the South Pennine Moors.
To Walk Invisible is a British television film about the Brontë family that aired on BBC One on 29 December 2016. The drama was written and directed by Sally Wainwright and focused on the relationship of the three Brontë sisters; Charlotte, Emily and Anne, and their brother, Branwell.
The Bradford Literature Festival is a spoken and written word event that promotes literature and is held for ten days annually over June and July in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The first event was held in 2014 and was attended by 968 people; over the next decade the attendance had risen to over 115,000 per year. The event is noted for its attendance by minority groups and writers, with over 50% of attendees coming from BAME backgrounds and 85% of attendees benefitting from free tickets as part of the Ethical Ticketing Policy.
Oliver Wilson is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a prop for the Huddersfield Giants in the Betfred Super League.
The Worth Valley is a geographic area in West Yorkshire, England, that extends eastwards from Crow Hill and Oxenhope Moor, providing drainage for the River Worth for nearly 10 miles (16 km) to the River Aire. It is a side valley to Airedale, with the River Worth being a major tributary of the River Aire. The Worth Valley was important for its contribution to the textiles industry of the West Riding of Yorkshire and was furnished with several reservoirs to allow mills to operate within the valley. Most of the reservoirs are still in use into the modern day.
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