Literary Calendar
Events for June 21, 2014 through July 20, 2014
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What We Remember on Penelope Lively, RSL
In this workshop, Penelope Lively will explore the borders between memoir writing and fiction. What do we remember, and why? How reliable are our memories? Discussion will focus on some of the books from the reading list, and class members will be invited to have a go themselves – a short burst of memoir, as imaginative as they please. Penelope Lively was twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize before winning it in 1987 for her novel Moon Tiger. She has also won&hellip
Lunch with Ivan Vladislavić and And Other Stories, Hardy’s Brasserie
The second supper club from And Other Stories – except that, as this is a Saturday, they thought they’d make it lunch instead! According to them… What to expect? A delicious meal, a chance to celebrate Ivan Vladislavić’s novels The Restless Supermarket and Double Negative, and a small gathering of like-minded people you will enjoy chatting to. As well as the author, Stefan and Nicci from And Other Stories will be there as well as a number of our readers, subscribers&hellip
Where Do You Go To, My Lovely? A Salon London at Foyles
In a mid-year summer slump, want to hit your creative brain with a defibrillator? Wait, government tech advisor and digital pin-up Ben Hammersely has spent the last year working out how to get your brain in optimum health for creative thought. Pens out. Learn from Ben. Salon London makes you superhuman: Want to understand the colour of music and the taste of words? World synaesthesia expert Professor Michael Banissy (author of Superhumans) will explain the world of the synaesthetes, those people who experience everything through&hellip
The Secret Life of Buildings: Bloomsbury Salon with Tom Wilkinson & Tom Campbell
What are the economic, erotic, political and psychological impacts of architecture on people? Novelist Tom Campbell and art historian Tom Wilkinson explore the secret life of buildings and their influence on people and their lives. Architecture moulds us just as much as we mould it, and understanding architecture helps us to understand our lives and our world, argues Tom Wilkinson. His book, Bricks and Mortalsreveals the powerful and intimate relationship between society and architecture through ten great buildings across the world and asks: can architecture&hellip
Rachel Holmes on Eleanor Marx, Southbank Centre
Rachel Holmes heads the bill with her new book on the life on Eleanor Marx. The former Head of Literature and Spoken Word at Southbank Centre, Holmes was recently one of the editors of Fifty Shades of Feminism. More information
The Ultimate Romantic Hero: Darcy or Rochester?
Darcy and Rochester represent the epitome of the romantic hero. But what would they really have been like to live with? Are they better on the page? We debate the desirability – and the horror – of two of the greatest figures in English literature. Melvyn Bragg has edited, produced and presented a wealth of award-winning documentaries and programmes across the cultural spectrum. Tanya Gold writes for The Guardian, The Daily Mail, The Times and The Independent. Fay Weldon CBE, is a novelist, screenwriter and essayist,&hellip
Matthew Tree discusses Snug at Blackwell’s Charing Cross Road
The UK launch of Snug by Matthew Tree at Blackwell’s Charing Cross Road. Presented by KS Lewkowicz – composer and lyricist. The author will read some brief extracts from the novel, to musical accompaniment by Kadialy Kouyate, a musician and Kora player from Senegal. Read Matthew Tree’s Author Pitch. More information here
Confronting the Classics: Mary Beard talks to Peter Stothard, Foyles
Mary Beard’s manifesto is simple: the Classics have a future, full of fascinating questions and problems to be argued about, investigated and (as the title has it) confronted with verve and wit. Join Mary Beard as she discusses her most recent book and also her notable career as one of the most original and best-known classicists working today, with TLS editor Peter Stothard, author of Alexandria. More information
Beginning, Middle And End with Michael Holroyd and Deborah Moggach, RSL
Tens of thousands of novels are published in the UK every year – so how do new voices get heard? Two well-established authors, Michael Holroyd and Deborah Moggach, introduce two outstanding young writers with novels coming out this month. Karin Altenberg’s first novel, Island of Wings, was set on St Kilda, and was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Prize. Her second,Breaking Light, is set on Dartmoor. ‘I am a hard rock of a reader,’ says Michael Holroyd, ‘but this has&hellip
The Gender Issue, Southbank Centre
Why are women still unequally represented in publishing? Every year, the VIDA Count provides a tally of male and female representation in major literary publications and book reviews. The Count has led the way in highlighting the fact that the gender inequality in publishing is unambiguous and ongoing. Hosted by the editors of all-female online arts quarterly tender, this panel event brings together a range of voices in publishing to explore critical and cultural perceptions of writing by women. Speakers include&hellip
Literary Death Match, Foyles
4 authors…3 judges…2 rounds…1 epic finale! Literary Death Match, the world’s biggest live literary gameshow is coming to Independent Booksellers Week with Windmill Books (the online home of literary publishers William Heinemann, Hutchinson and, of course, Windmill). Join Alexandra Heminsley, Carys Bray, Nick Harkaway, John Boyne and more for a star-studded show to whet your literary whistle! More information
The White Review with Deborah Levy, Greg Baxter, Benedict Andrews and Sam Riviere, Foyles
The White Review presents an evening of readings with an international flavour by novelists Deborah Levy and Greg Baxter, playwright Benedict Andrews and poet Sam Riviere. Benedict Andrews is an Australian theatre and opera director now resident in Iceland. This year, his first collection of poetry Lens Flare will be published by Pitt Street Poetry in Australia and his first volume of plays by Oberon Books in the UK. www.benedictandrews.com Greg Baxter was born in Texas in 1974. He lived for a number of years&hellip
Political Digest with Owen Jones and Hadley Freeman, Foyles
Take a look at the year ahead in the political and social calendar, with outspoken opinion leaders and columnists, Owen Jones and Hadley Freeman. Join them as they anticipate and speculate on the landmark events, issues and scandals that will be hitting the headlines; from whether a Grandmother can make a suitable President up to, and ending with, the General Election on 7 May 2015. Owen Jones is a socialist, Guardian columnist and author of Chavs and his forthcoming book, The Establishment; he was also&hellip
The Empathy Exams: Leslie Jamison and Olivia Laing
Leslie Jamison’s essays deal with pain, illness, art, running, loss, the female body and everything else besides. She will be at the shop to discuss her work with the author Olivia Laing, who wrote of her in the New York Times ‘There is a glory to this kind of writing that derives as much from its ethical generosity, the palpable sense of stretch and reach, as it does from the lovely vividness of the language itself. More information
Another Great Day at Sea: Geoff Dyer, LRB
Geoff Dyer’s latest book Another Great Day at Sea (Visual Editions), illustrated with the photographs of Chris Steele-Perkins, recounts daily life aboard an American aircraft carrier the USS George H. W. Bush, on which Dyer spent time as a kind of writer in residence. Philip Hoare wrote of it in the Guardian: ‘This is beautiful writing. It is urgent, funny, utterly in-the-moment and achingly honest. … Like the captain, like the crew, like the ship, Dyer’s superb book constantly reiterates&hellip
Happy are the happy: Yasmina Reza talks to Sarah Ardizzone
French writer Yasmina Reza first came to the attention of a British audience with the hugely popular and award-winning West End production of her play Art. More recently she adapted her own play The God of Carnage into the hit film Carnage, directed by Roman Polanski and starring Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet. She is also the author of several novels, the most recent of which Happy are the Happy is a caustic and hilarious tale of love, infidelity, parenthood&hellip
African new writing: The Caine Prize Readings, Southbank Centre
The Caine Prize Readings are an opportunity to hear the best in new fiction and celebrate Africa’s leading literary award. Each shortlisted writer reads from and discusses their work. The 2014 shortlist is: Diane Awerbuck (South Africa) ‘Phosphorescence’ in Cabin Fever(Umuzi, Cape Town. 2011) Efemia Chela (Ghana/Zambia) ‘Chicken’ in Feast, Famine and Potluck (Short Story Day Africa, South Africa. 2013) Tendai Huchu (Zimbabwe) ‘The Intervention’ in Open Road Review, issue 7, New Delhi. 2013 Billy Kahora (Kenya) ‘The Gorilla’s Apprentice’ in Granta (London. 2010) Okwiri Oduor (Kenya) ‘My Father’s Head’ in Feast, Famine and&hellip
American Interior: Gruff Rhys and Iain Sinclair, LRB
In the summer of 2012, Gruff Rhys, the lead singer and guitarist of Super Furry Animals, made a bizarre pilgrimage across the United States. He was following in the footsteps of his distant relative, the pioneering explorer and cartographer John Evans, who had set off from Snowdonia in 1792 in an attempt to track down the legendary Welsh-speaking Native American tribe, the Madogwys. (This tribe – who were, inevitably, too good to be true – also inspired two long poems,&hellip
Poets’ Love Letters, Southbank Centre
To celebrate Southbank Centre’s Festival of Love, hear readings from heartbreaking love letters. Harriet Walter and Guy Paul read the letters between Byron and Lady Caroline Lamb, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Rilke and Marina Tsvetaeva. Ben Lamb reads Keats and Rupert Brooke. Susannah Fielding reads Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath and Pablo Neruda Jason Hughes reads one of Dylan Thomas’s last letters to his wife Caitlin, as well as Ted Hughes, Wilfrid Owen and Russell Edson. Steve Toussaint reads Flaubert, Faiz and Paul Laurence Dunbar This&hellip
50 Love Poems, Southbank Centre
Hear fifty of the greatest love poems from the last 50 years. More information. Actors and poets from across the globe come together for a celebratory reading. What does love give us? It gives us hope; courage; defiance. Through these poems we look at the world as it is now, through human qualities that counteract hate: love, empathy, humanity. Part of Poetry International Hear fifty of the greatest international love poems from the last 50 years. A star cast of&hellip