Lecturers at The Northern School of Writing have launched three books published by Routledge, Cambridge University Press and Bloomsbury Academic at a sold out event at Home, Manchester. We were thrilled to see so many students and staff from across the University of Salford celebrating these crucial works, which all analyse how language shapes our world; how gesture and inarticulacy offer clues to the development of civilisation, and what our literature tells us about the the nature of the climate crisis.