Writers at York: Programme for Spring−Summer 2014
Writers at York is supported by the University of York’s External Engagement Awards and the Festival of Ideas.
Maureen McLane, ‘A Poetry Reading’
Treehouse, Berrick Saul Building, Heslington West Campus,Thursday 6 March, 7pm
Maureen McLane is the author of three volumes of poetry, plus the new collection, This Blue, which is forthcoming in April 2014. She teaches Romanticism at New York University where she is Professor of English.
Tabish Khair, ‘Islamisation and Fiction: A Narrative’
York Medical Society (city centre), Friday 7 March, 7pm
Danish−Indian novelist, literature academic, and Man Asian Literary Prize nominee Tabish Khair will speak at York about his thoughtful yet hilarious novel How to Fight Islamist Terror from the Missionary Position, which is released in the UK on 20 February.Lavinia Greenlaw, ‘A Double Sorrow’
King’s Manor (city centre, University of York), Wednesday 23 April, 2014, 6pm
Lavinia Greenlaw’s A Double Sorrow is an unforgettable retelling of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde – what is said to be his finest poem and one of the most captivating love stories ever written. It is published by Faber and Faber in March 2014. The reading will be preceded by a talk on Chaucer by Kenneth Clarke (University of York)
‘Poetry, Music, and the Sacred: Alice Goodman and Michael Symmons Roberts in Conversation’
York Minster, Wed 30 April after Evensong (7pm)
In the awe-inspiring setting of York Minster, this evening of readings and conversation brings together two extraordinary poet-librettists, Alice Goodman and Michael Symmons Roberts,chaired by Professor Hugh Haughton(University of York), to discuss the collaboration between poetry and music, and the relationship of their work to faith and to the sacred.
Adil Ray, ‘In Conversation’, followed by a screening of Citizen Khan
Department of Theatre, Film and Television (TFTV), Heslington East Campus, Thursday 15 May, 6pm
This event centres around the controversial but popular BBC 1 situation comedy Citizen Khan, co-written by and starring Adil Ray, and set in Birmingham’s Sparkhill district. Is Ray using stereotypes of British-Pakistanis in this show, or does Citizen Khan changeperceptions of Britishness? Come and hear him in conversation and make up your own mind!
Daniel Mulhall, ‘James Joyce: Ulysses, Order and Chaos. A Bloomsday Lecture’
A Festival of Ideas Event.
Bowland Auditorium, Berrick Saul Building, Heslington West Campus, Monday 16 June, 5pm
James Joyce’s Ulysses – which follows the modern-day Odysseus, Leopold Bloom, round Dublin for a day – is set on 16 June 1904. This date is celebrated across the world as ‘Bloomsday’. On its 110th anniversary, Dr Dan Mulhall, Irish Ambassador to Britain, will lecture on Joyce and Ulysses, Joyce’s great book about ordering the chaos of a modern day as myth and history.
‘Writing the Living, Writing the Dead: Patrick French in Conversation’
A Festival of Ideas Event.
Bowland Auditorium, Berrick Saul Building, Heslington West Campus, Thursday 19 June, 6pm
Eminent biographer and historian Patrick French discusses the art of literary biography, and shows how V.S. Naipaul, born in rural poverty in colonial Trinidad, turned himself into a key figure in contemporary world literature.