First launched in 2005, 'The Big Gay Read', the campaign to discover the nation's favourite lesbian or gay novel, attracted over 10,000 votes from 20 countries. To celebrate the success of the competition, queerupnorth presented a series of events with some of the authors featured. Authors including Armistead Maupin, Patrick Gale and Sarah Waters appeared in Manchester for the first queerupnorth Literature Festival.
