May
brings an array of stars into the Newcastle literary firmament: Anne
Stevenson receives an honorary degree; Nuruddin Farah gives both the
Leverhulme lecture and a reading and Jackie Kay launches her memoir, Red Dust Road. We are also proud to
announce a new project, One Book, in partnership with the Booker Prize
Foundation.
NCLA is
delighted to announce that Anne Stevenson, one of the most distinguished contemporary
poets, has been awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by Newcastle
University.
After
moving to the North East in 1981 as a Northern Arts Literary Fellow, Anne chose
to make her home in the region. Inaugural winner of the Northern Rock
Foundation Writer’s Award in 2002, her writing has attracted several
accolades including a Lifetime Achievement award from the Lannan Foundation.
In his
citation, Professor Paul Chinnery says of Anne:
‘She
has written a wide and imaginative range of works using a formidable and
characteristic technique. Her life has been dedicated to her written
art, making her one of the most notable poets of her generation.
Anne’s
work displays an unyielding seriousness about the art of poetry. Sometimes
spare, it is always striking, and is distinguished by a clear-sighted grasp
of the essential seriousness of the poet’s vocation, leavened by a mischievous humour that never
allows that seriousness to lapse into pomposity.’
Further
information about Anne’s writing and life is available on her website.
Over the
summer 7,000 copies of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, Never Let Me Go, will
be sent out to new first year undergraduate students as the Booker Prize Foundation and the
University join forces to promote reading across the campus. NCLA will
be running reading groups and other activities with students before a big
gala event in the City Hall with Kazuo Ishiguro in conversation with Jackie
Kay.
Coincidentally,
the film of Never Let Me Go directed by Mark Romanek and
starring Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan, will be released later this year.
It’s definitely the book to be reading over the summer!
The extended deadline (21st June 2010) for
the International student short story competition is fast approaching. Winners will be selected by Jackie Kay. The winning story and a
shortlisted selection will be published in a collection exploring
international students’ experience of studying in the UK in 2010. Full
submission guidelines are available on the website.
This year’s Creative Writing Summer
School will run from Monday 28th June to Friday 2nd July 2010.
Themed ‘The City’, tutors include Orange Award
for New Writers winner, novelist Naomi Alderman, (Imagining the
City); playwright and children’s novelist Ann
Coburn (The City as Character); BAFTA nominated scriptwriter and director Ian Fenton (Night and
the City); poet Linda France (Walking the City) and poet Bill Herbert (Reinventing the City).
Course
fee: £300 (to include refreshments, lunch, and evening events including
dinner on Friday night).
For
further information or to book call Melanie Birch on 0191 222 7619 or email melanie.birch@ncl.ac.uk
Acclaimed
Somali novelist and NCLA Leverhulme Visiting Professor, Nuruddin Farah, will
give the Leverhulme lecture on Thursday 20th May
at 5.30pm in the Percy Building, Newcastle University. He will also give a literary reading on Tuesday 25th May at 7pm in Culture Lab.
Originally
born in Somalia, Nuruddin spent most of his adult life in exile in Europe,
America and South Africa (where he now lives). He returns to his native land
in his writing in order to represent the ‘unnameable’ nature of
Somalia’s experience of colonialism with its contradictions and
violence. As well as probing the realities of power and politics, his novels
are mysterious and poetic, drawing on African oral traditions as well as
European modernism to create a particular haunting quality. He has
written 11 novels including From a Crooked Rib (1970), Sardines (1981), Maps (1986) and Secrets (1998). In 1998 he was the
winner of the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
For further
information, or to buy tickets, please call Melanie Birch on 0191 222 7619 or
email melanie.birch@ncl.ac.uk
Newcastle University’s award-winning Professor of
Creative Writing, Jackie Kay MBE, will be launching her memoir, Red
Dust Road, at the Great North Museum at 7pm on Thursday 3rd June 2010. She will be joined by singer Suzanne Bonnar and Glasgow-based guitarist Alan Brown.
Jackie is a familiar voice on the radio and other media
and known to regular attendees at NCLA literary events as a generous
interviewer of others. This event offers an opportunity to hear her reading
in a new medium.
On the British Council website,
Susan Tranter writes:
‘In the last 20 years or so, Jackie Kay has moved from
marginal voice to national treasure. Yet throughout her widely-ranging career
– encompassing poetry, plays, children’s writing, short stories, prose and
the novel – her work has continued to gravitate around key themes of identity,
and the importance of poems and stories as affirmations both of individuality
and of human connectedness.’ Susan Tranter, 2008
For further
information, or to buy tickets, please call Melanie Birch on 0191 222 7619 or
email melanie.birch@ncl.ac.uk
Irish poet Paul
Durcan will be giving what, from past experience, promises to be another
of his phenomenal poetry readings at The Herschel Building, Newcastle
University, at 7pm on Thursday 10th June 2010.
Paul won the Patrick Kavanagh Award in 1974, published
his first collection in 1975 and has won many awards since. His collection The
Berlin Wall Café (1985) was a Poetry Book Society choice and Daddy,
Daddy (1990) won the Whitbread Poetry Award. He was awarded the Irish
American Cultural Institute Poetry Award in 1989 as well as being joint
winner of the Heinemann Award in 1995.
For further
information, or to buy tickets, please call Melanie Birch on 0191 222 7619 or
email melanie.birch@ncl.ac.uk
The June newsletter will contain details of NCLA’s exciting
autumn programme. Further internationally acclaimed writers (including Kazuo Ishiguro)
will be visiting the Centre to read and talk about their work.