Coming Of Age Stories: Now & Then
Tuesday 28th June 2016 Coming Of Age Stories: Now & Then From the Bildungsroman to Young Adult Fiction A lecture by Professor Phil Cohen In this special event hosted by Birkbeck’s Centre for Contemporary Literature, Professor Phil Cohen will reflect on the transformations of the ‘coming of age’ narrative. Professor Cohen will explore how such stories have changed from the classical bildungsroman to adapt to the ‘just in time’ production of the self in more recent times, and the foreclosure of transitions to adulthood currently being experienced by generations x, y or beyond. In this context, Professor Cohen will discuss the emergence of Young Adult fiction as a distinctive genre, as well as the changing grammars of life story telling. Following his talk, Professor Cohen – an ethnographer who has researched and written widely about youth cultures – will welcome questions and open discussion on the issues raised. Time: 6-7:30pm Venue: 124, 43 Gordon Square All welcome. Image: Young Adult Fiction – September 2010 by Pesky Librarians, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0...
Prize Culture & Contemporary Publishing
Wednesday 8th June 2016 How is literary value allocated? What is the importance of prizes in the contemporary literary field? Novelist Russell Celyn Jones served as a Booker Prize judge in 2002, when the prize was awarded to Life of Pi. In this special session, he will give an insider’s insight into the process of prizegiving and the machinations of literary value judgements, while also reflecting on how contemporary fiction publishing has developed in recent years. Russell Celyn Jones is Professor of Creative Writing at Birkbeck and is the author of seven novels. He will be in conversation with Dr Grace Halden, Director of Birkbeck’s MA in Contemporary Literature & Culture. Time: 6-7:30 Venue: B04, 43 Gordon Square All with an interest in this area are welcome to attend and join the discussion. Image: Book Store, Seattle by Curtis Cronn, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0...
You Must Mutate: The Future of Fiction
Friday 20th May 2016 Taking Toby Litt’s new collection of non-fiction essays, Mutants (Seagull Books, 2016), as a starting point, Toby and Caroline Edwards (Birkbeck) will discuss developments in contemporary fiction as it attempts to deal with an increasingly fast-paced technological world. Toby Litt is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and is the author of numerous volumes of fiction. Dr Caroline Edwards is Lecturer in Contemporary Literature, has published several articles on contemporary fiction and theory, and is co-founder of the innovative publishing platform the Open Library of the Humanities. Time: 6-7.30pm Venue: B04, 43 Gordon Square Book your place here. Image: Mutants by Daniel Lobo, used under a CC BY 2.0...
An Evening of American Poetry
Thursday 19th May 2016 Featuring readings by Rob Halpern, Peter Gizzi and Matvei Yankelevich, this event showcases the recent work of three of the most vital poets writing today, whose writing emerges from the complexities of translation and of lived experience. Join us for an evening of uncomfortable, beautiful poems that confront the necessity of reinventing the lyric in the context of social crisis, late capitalism, violence and militarization. This evening of American poetry is organized by Birkbeck's Centre for Contemporary Poetics. For more information on the Centre, contact either of its co-directors, Professor Carol Watts and Dr Steve Willey. Time: 7:30-9 Venue: G02, 43 Gordon Square Book your place here. Image: An Angry Phone Call by Byron Barrett, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0...
Max Porter in conversation
Wednesday 18th May 2016 Max Porter’s debut novel, Grief Is the Thing With Feathers (Faber, 2015) tells the story of a family torn apart by the sudden death of a mother. The father, a Ted Hughes scholar, and his two sons are visited by Crow, part-trickster, part-Mary Poppins, part-Freudian nightmare, an imaginary being who vows to stay with them until they have worked through their loss. Poetic and formally innovative, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers marks the emergence of a radically original literary talent. Hear Max Porter discuss his critically acclaimed book with Birkbeck academic and novelist Dr Mark Blacklock. Time: 7:30-9 Venue: B04, 43 Gordon Square Book your place here. For more information contact Dr Mark Blacklock at m.blacklock@bbk.ac.uk. Image: Crows by Mary Bailey, used under a CC BY 2.0...
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