Hunt to find 100 stories for city's centenary

Author and university lecturer Dr Lisa Blower is hoping to put together a list of 100 publications to mark Stoke-on-Trent's centenary

Lisa Blower A lady with auburn hair is sitting on on stone steps and is holding a book that is half open. She is smiling into the camera and is wearing a grey scarf and jacket. — Author and university lecturer Dr Lisa Blower is hoping to put together a list of 100 publications to mark Stoke-on-Trent's centenary

People who have self-published stories could be in line to sit among more widely known authors as a city hunts to sum up its 100-year history through literature.

Dr Lisa Blower, from Stoke-on-Trent, an author herself, has launched a project called "100 books for 100 years" in a bid to find one publication from every year between 1925 and 2025.

The project also aims to highlight the work of Potteries-born authors who were "writing under the shadows" of the city's better known names.

It comes as Stoke-on-Trent prepares to mark its centenary from when it obtained city status from His Majesty King George V in 1925.

Dr Blower, a lecturer at Keele University, said the project would "discover and recover the works that have been neglected or forgotten" to create a "literary canon" for Stoke-on-Trent by December.

Arnold Bennett, who sold huge numbers of books in the 20th century, is one of the city's most "well-known" names and has even been referred to as "the JK Rowling of his day".

Poet Charles Tomlinson, born in 1927, is also among those known around the city, however Dr Blower noted: "There is quite a gap between these guys and us writers who have been writing in the 21st Century".

She added the city's libraries and archives were also involved in the project to aid her effort.

"We're after novels, short fiction, poetry, plays, memoirs, non-fiction and history books," Dr Blower said.

"Perhaps someone in your family published a book that nobody knows about - these are the things that we're really interested in finding."

Arnold Bennett, who started writing in the late 19th Century, has been called the "JK Rowling of his day"

Getty Images A black and white picture from the early 20th Century of a man sitting on a chair in an office. He is wearing a pin-striped suit and a bow tie. He is looking into the camera but is not smiling. — Arnold Bennett, who started writing in the late 19th Century, has been called the "JK Rowling of his day"

The university lecturer and author said she was confident they would be able to find the full, 100 publications.

But she said, even if there were some spaces, the project also included workshops to encourage young people to start writing and avoid similar gaps in the future.

"We really are hoping if there were gaps before, there's not going to be gaps going forwards," Dr Blower said.

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