Literary Calendar
Events for March 4, 2014 through April 7, 2014
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A Liberal Arts Degree is a Waste of Time and Money, The Spectator
Is the government wise to invest in teaching skill-based subjects, as opposed to those that rely on creative impulse? Come and hear some of the country’s top defenders of the arts – and its detractors – at what promises to be a lively Spectator Debate on whether a liberal arts education is a secure investment or whether it squanders both time and money. Book tickets/more information
On Voice: Lavinia Greenlaw, Ali Smith , George Saunders and Erica Wagner at The British Library
The Folio Society and the British Library are hosting a festival which will feature the Folio Prize judges, shortlisted authors and members of the Academy, who will come together for a rich discussion about the art of storytelling. Chair of this year’s judges for The Folio Prize, Lavinia Greenlaw is a writer whose work is celebrated for its beautiful precision; Ali Smith is frequently praised for her dazzling wordplay and abundant imagination. Here they will discuss with fellow Academician, critic and author, Erica Wagner, the role&hellip
On Place: Nam Le, Sebastian Faulks and James Walton, The British Library
The Folio Society and the British Library are hosting a festival which will feature the Folio Prize judges, shortlisted authors and members of the Academy, who will come together for a rich discussion about the art of storytelling. Both Nam Le and Sebastian Faulks have been praised for the vastly different worlds that they create in their stories. Here they will talk with fellow Academician, James Walton, about the power of place in fiction writing. Nam Le’s The Boat was shortlisted for six major prizes and won 2008&hellip
Reading women: Tessa Hadley, Frances Wilson, Suzi Feay, The British Library
The Folio Society and the British Library are hosting a festival which will feature the Folio Prize judges, shortlisted authors and members of the Academy, who will come together for a rich discussion about the art of storytelling. To mark International Women’s Day on Sat 8 March, and in celebration of the ‘Year of Reading Women’ (#readwomen2014), Folio Prize Academicians Tessa Hadley, Frances Wilson and Suzi Feay will be discussing their writing heroes and reflecting on the female literary landscape. Tessa Hadley, frequently described as&hellip
On Genre: Michael Chabon, Mark Haddon and Stephanie Merritt, The British Library
The Folio Society and the British Library are hosting a festival which will feature the Folio Prize judges, shortlisted authors and members of the Academy, who will come together for a rich discussion about the art of storytelling. Speaking about his role as a Folio Prize judge Michael Chabon said “great literature respects no borders or boundaries”. As a renowned champion of multiple forms of storytelling, the bestselling and Pulitzer prize-winning author will talk with Mark Haddon about the array of genres and forms&hellip
On Structure: Sarah Hall, A.S. Byatt and Sam Leith, The British Library
The Folio Society and the British Library are hosting a festival which will feature the Folio Prize judges, shortlisted authors and members of the Academy, who will come together for a rich discussion about the art of storytelling. Join Academicians Sarah Hall, A.S Byatt and Sam Leith in a discussion about how mastering structure, the ‘bones’ of a story, is essential to any work of fiction, whatever form it takes. Sarah Hall is the author of four novels and an award-winning collection of short stories.&hellip
On Context: Pankaj Mishra, Andrew O’Hagan and Rachel Cooke, The British Library
The Folio Society and the British Library are hosting a festival which will feature the Folio Prize judges, shortlisted authors and members of the Academy, who will come together for a rich discussion about the art of storytelling. Pankaj Mishra, Andrew O’Hagan and Rachel Cooke are all writers whose work has touched on social and cultural change around the world. Here they will discuss how storytelling reflects and is shaped by the context in which it is written. Pankaj Mishra’s writing spans travelogue, fiction,&hellip
International Women’s Day evening with Aminatta Forna
To celebrate International Women’s Day, the Bloomsbury Institute is partnering with the charity Womankind for an event honouring women around the world. Aminatta Forna, Orange Prize-shortlisted author, will discuss her novel The Memory of Love, set during the civil conflict in Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002. She and a representative from the charity will discuss the current situation in Sierra Leone, twelve years since the end of the conflict and Womankind’s work with local women’s organisations in Sierra Leone and around the world.&hellip
Aminatta Forna at Bloomsbury Institute
To celebrate International Women’s Day, the Bloomsbury Institute is partnering with the charity Womankind for an event honouring women around the world. Aminatta Forna, Orange Prize-shortlisted author, will discuss her novel The Memory of Love, set during the Civil War in Sierra Leone in 1969. She and a representative from the charity will discuss the current situation in Sierra Leone, ten years since the end of the conflict and Womankind’s work with local women’s organisations in Sierra Leone and around the world. Womankind&hellip
Adam Foulds on In The Wolf’s Mouth, LRB
Adam Foulds’s latest novel, In The Wolf’s Mouth (Jonathan Cape), expands on the themes of violence, conflict and the distortions of history that have characterised his work since 2007’s The Broken Word. Set in Sicily as the Second World War moves into its endgame, the novel is a vivid study of the moral compromises and historical elisions forced on us by war and its aftermath. Adam will be in conversation with Andrew Motion, the former poet laureate, whose most recent&hellip
5×15: Bompas & Parr, Fiona Shaw (schedule allowing), Kirsty Wark, Emma Bridgewater
Bompas & Parr, Fiona Shaw (schedule allowing), Kirsty Wark, Emma Bridgewater at the Tabernacle. Book tickets/more information
An evening with Anita Shreve, Waterstone’s Piccadilly
The bestselling novelist will discuss her intense psychological mystery The Lives of Stella Bain with Viv Groskop. Book tickets/more information
Deborah Levy, Maggie O’Farrell and Susie Boyt talk to Lennie Goodings, Daunts
Some of today’s most notable women writers talk about which Virago Modern Classics continue to inspire them. Favourites include novels by Muriel Spark, Angela Carter, Barbara Comyns and Elizabeth Taylor. This is a unique opportunity to hear writers talk as readers, discussing the ways in which these enduring classics have influenced their work. Book tickets/more information
Adam Foulds, Rebecca Hunt and Evie Wyld talk to Edmund Gordon
In an industry which favours established names and where new writers struggle to get their voices heard, these young novelists have enjoyed astonishing success. Three writers of a talented new generation read from their books and discuss their work with a young literary critic. Book tickets/more information
A.L. Kennedy, David Constantine and Helen Simpson talk to K.J. Orr, Daunt Books
Short stories have never been more celebrated as a literary art form, or more popular with readers. Join us for an inspiring discussion of their merits and charm, and listen to a dazzling array of short story writers read their work. Witness just how much can be achieved in a short story – as Alice Munro said in her Nobel Prize acceptance speech: “Everything the story tells moves you in such a way that you feel you’re a different person&hellip
Damon Galgut with Patrick Gale, Kings Place
The South African writer Damon Galgut, shortlisted for the Booker Prize for The Good Doctor and In a Strange Room, talks about his new novel Arctic Summer. In this literary tour de force, the author evokes the life of E. M. Forster and his travels to India, exploring the mysterious alchemy of the creative process. Read all reviews for Arctic Summer. Patrick Gale’s most recent novels are Notes From an Exhibition, The Whole Day Through and A Perfectly Good Man. He is working on an original drama series for BBC2 and&hellip
Visual Editions at Ace Hotel Shoreditch
Dazed’s Stuart Hammond will be in conversation with local London residents and map makers author and poet Joe Dunthorne and novelist Adam Thirlwell. It’s all happening on Wednesday 2nd April, with doors and drinks at 18.30 and readings and conversation at 19.00 at Ace Hotel London
Kamila Shamsie, Southbank Centre
The launch event of Kamila Shamsie’s new novel A God in Every Stone. Named last year as one of Granta‘s ‘Best of Young British Novelists’, Kamila Shamsie is the author of five works of fiction. Her most recent, Burnt Shadows, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for fiction, and has been translated into more than 20 languages. Her new novel A God in Every Stone is a rich and vivid tale of friendship, injustice, love and betrayal set in India, France, England and Turkey. Exploring&hellip
Eleanor Catton in conversation with Robert Macfarlane, RSL
A special collaboration with the Royal Society of Literature and Intelligent Life magazine sees the return of Eleanor Catton to London for an exclusive event in which Robert Macfarlane, bestselling travel writer and Chair of the Man Booker Prize judges, will interview Catton for the first time. Read all reviews for The Luminaries Last October, Catton, a 28-year-old New Zealander, became the youngest ever winner of the Man Booker Prize. Her epic 832-page murder-mystery The Luminaries (Granta Books), is set&hellip
Tim Parks on Teach Us to Sit Still, Kings Place
‘Just when the medical profession had given up on me and I on it, just when I seemed to be walled up in a life sentence of chronic pain, someone proposed a bizarre way out: sit still, they said, and breathe. I sat still. I breathed. It seemed a tedious exercise at first, rather painful, not immediately effective. Eventually it proved so exciting, so transforming, physically and mentally, that I began to think my illness had been a stroke of&hellip