Events Items
On Fatherhood: Caleb Klaces and Jack Underwood in conversation with John Challis
Date/Time: Wednesday 3rd November 2021, 7pm to 8pm
Venue: Via YouTube - details to be sent on booking
Caleb Klaces’ debut novel Fatherhood (Prototype, 2019) combines prose and poetry in a work of verse fiction. Moving between history, memory and autobiography, its shifting form captures a life and language split open by fatherhood. An experiment in rewriting masculinity, it asks how bodies can share both a house and a planet.
‘A brilliant, charming, and weirdly alarming poem-novel about the time-bending strangeness of being a parent. I love Caleb Klaces’ writing.’ Max Porter
Caleb’s debut poetry collection Bottled Air (Eyewear, 2013) won the Melita Hume Prize and an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors, and his highly anticipated second collection Away From Me (Prototype) was published in June 2021. He is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and English Literature at York St John University.
Jack Underwood’s first non-fiction book Not Even This (Corsair, 2021) is an essay-memoir on parenthood, exploring poetic language, knowledge and uncertainty.
‘In clear, nimble and dexterous prose, Underwood launches a capacious quest toward the unknown and maps the limits of knowledge via artmaking’s potent yet elusive role in amplifying the unknowable. All this revolves and hovers over the intimate negotiation of perhaps the deepest mystery of all: fatherhood – and with it the precarious wonder, the fraught yet ever-vital annals of parenting and love.’ Ocean Vuong
Jack's debut collection Happiness (Faber, 2015) won the 2016 Somerset Maugham prize. A double pamphlet Solo for Mascha Voice/Tenuous Rooms was published by Test Centre in 2018. As a critic he has been a regular reviewer for both Poetry Review and Poetry London, and has published essays with Five Dials and Prac Crit. He is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London.
John Challis’ debut full-length collection The Resurrectionists was published by Bloodaxe in 2021. He is a Research Associate with NCLA.
The event is free to attend, and all very welcome.
