Thursday 27 April ‘Readers and Reading’ Thursday 4 May Kamila Shamsie Thursday 11 May GREAT Bernardine Evaristo Thursday 18 May WRITERS Daljit Nagra Thursday 25 May D-Empress Dianne INSPIRE Regisford Thursday 1 June AT HOME Nadifa Mohamed a series of conversations Thursday 8 June between writers & readers Aminatta Forna
Thursday 15 June Editors and contributors, The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing
Monday 26 June M. NourbeSe Philip
This series runs in place of the English Faculty Postcolonial Writing and Theory Seminar in Trinity Term 2017.
5 pm Seminar Room, 3rd Floor, Radcliffe Humanities Building, Woodstock Rd, Oxford www.writersmakeworlds.com GREAT WRITERS INSPIRE AT HOME
A series of workshop discussions hosted jointly by the Oxford English Faculty and The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH).
5 – 7 pm, Thursday weeks 2–8; Monday week 10
Seminar Room, 3rd Floor, Radcliffe Humanities Building, Woodstock Road, Oxford (except 25 May)
The series runs in place of the English Faculty Postcolonial Writing and Theory seminar in Trinity Term 2017. We return to our fortnightly programme of talks and discussion at Wadham College, chaired by Elleke Boehmer and Ankhi Mukherjee, in Michaelmas Term 2017. All are welcome to these workshops.
www.writersmakeworlds.com
Great Writers Inspire at Home will bring together a number of contemporary British writers to discuss how literary writing, both novels and poems, shapes readers’ perceptions of the contemporary world.
Focusing specifically on current Black and Asian British writing, our primary focus in the project is the experience of reading. The primary focus is the experience of reading: we will think about the ways in which readers respond to writing and writers appeal to readers. During the workshops, authors will read from and discuss their work, but the emphasis will be placed on readers’ responses to the writing, and generous time will be allocated for audience-writer conversation and interaction.
The discussions form part of a larger research project, Postcolonial Text, World Form, directed by Elleke Boehmer, which asks how current British writing provides frameworks for understanding some of the pressing issues of our time, including questions of identity and difference, and concepts of the national and the global.
PROGRAMME
27 APRIL (WEEK 1) – ‘READERS AND READINGS’ The project leaders will introduce the concept of the series, and participating readers will give readings of their favourite passages from the books they have engaged with in their reading groups.
4 MAY (WEEK 2) – KAMILA SHAMSIE Kamila Shamsie is the acclaimed author of six novels. Born in Pakistan, she now lives in London. She will read from her most recent novel, A God in Every Stone (2014). Mostly set in London and Peshawar in the first decades of the twentieth century, the novel explores ‘the communality [and] contradictions … of empire’ (Tabish Khair, Financial Times). In an opening session, reading groups who have read the novel will be able to offer responses to their experiences of reading it. 11 MAY (WEEK 3) – BERNARDINE EVARISTO Evaristo is an award-winning author of seven books and numerous other works of fiction, poetry, verse fiction, short fiction, essays, literary criticism, and radio and theatre drama. She will be in conversation about her verse novel, The Emperor’s Babe (2001), which tells the story of a black girl growing up in Roman London in 211 AD. As part of the conversation, readers who have read the novel will be able to participate in a discussion that centres on their responses to the book.
18 MAY (WEEK 4) – DALJIT NAGRA The British poet Daljit Nagra has won multiple awards for his work, including the Forward Prize and the Guardian First Book Award. In dialogue with Rachael Gilmour, he will read from and speak about his celebrated debut collection, Look We Have Coming to Dover! (2007). The poems are based on his experiences as the son of Punjabi parents who came from India to Britain in the 1950s. As part of the discussion, audience members will have an opportunity to talk about their experiences of reading his work.
25 MAY (WEEK 5) – DIANNE REGISFORD (D-EMPRESS) Local Oxford performance poet Dianne Regisford, also known as D-Empress, will present a multimedia performance installation piece entitled ‘Hersto-Rhetoric? Na so today!!!’. The performance will take place in the St Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Woodstock Road.
1 JUNE (WEEK 6) – NADIFA MOHAMED Nadifa Mohamed, one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists 2013, was born in Hargeisa, Somalia, and has lived in England since 1986. The workshop will focus on her debut novel, Black Mamba Boy (2010), based on her father’s travels across the Horn of Africa, before his eventual arrival in Britain. Mohamed will be in dialogue with ‘Africa in Words’ editor Kate Haines during the workshop. Readers will be able to participate in a discussion on their responses to the book.
8 JUNE (WEEK 7) – AMINATTA FORNA Windham-Campbell-winning author Aminatta Forna was born in Scotland, and raised in Sierra Leone and Britain. Her Commonwealth Writers’ Prize-winning novel, The Memory of Love (2010), set in post-war Sierra Leone, will form the basis of the discussion. Readers will be able to participate in a discussion about their experiences of reading the novel.
15 JUNE (WEEK 8) – EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS, THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF BLACK AND ASIAN BRITISH WRITING Editor Susheila Nasta and a number of the contributors will be in conversation about their Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing, the very first academic collection to cover nearly 300 years of Black and Asian British literature, due to be published in 2018. From their perspectives as critics, they will address the questions of writing, reading and identity in Britain today.
26 JUNE (WEEK 10) – M. NOURBESE PHILIP M. NourbeSe Philip is a poet, novelist and lawyer, born in Tobago but now based in Canada. Though Philip does not have direct ties to Britain, her concerns with language, the past, and the question of how we belong, links her to many of the other writers who appear in the series. She will be in a panel discussion with Marina Warner, Matthew Reynolds and Elleke Boehmer.