Tagged: Reading
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Listen: Audrey Niffenegger on the Future of Storytelling
In her keynote speech for The Literary Consultancy's annual conference, the best-selling author of The Time-Traveler's Wife drew on her experiences as a writer and visual artist to consider the intersection of art, technology and the future of storytelling.
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Monday Reads: “Metaphors We Live By”
First published in 1981, this fascinating book is now a classic which changed our understanding of metaphor and its role on language and the mind. Rather than being a quirk of language, metaphor is, the authors argue, a mechanism the mind uses to make sense of the world. They influence how we process and understand ideas, and shape our perceptions and…
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Monday Reads: “Hope: A Tragedy”
Hope: A Tragedy follows the tale of Solomon Kugel, whose difficult life as a guilt-soaked Jewish homemaker further unravels following the discovery of an aged and endlessly unpleasant Anne Frank literally living in his attic. Shalom Auslander takes this pitch black punch line as the jumping off point for a hilarious and frequently pointed examination of our awkward relationship with…
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The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Goes for “Detour”
Dutch tale The Detour has been announced as the winner of the 2013 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, at an awards ceremony sponsored by Tattinger in London, tonight, 20th May 2013. Themes of infidelity, exile and isolation won over the judges of this year’s Prize to give the author his second major prize win. His previous novel The…
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Power to the Readers!
This year's Independent Foreign Fiction prize is being shadowed by reading groups up and down the country nominating their own winner of a Reader's Prize. We spoke to some of the book groups about the challenge of picking a winner.
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Monday Reads: The Great Gatsby
As the world of cinema explodes around the release of Baz Luhrmann's champagne-soaked adaptation of this Jazz Age classic, we thought it would be a good time to shy away from the blockbuster and revisit the original, surprisingly slender novel. Though the story of a man throwing lavish parties to impress his lost love was what came to mind…
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The Week in Ideas, 3rd May 2013
What's it like to leave the internet? What do writers make of their first books? How can you escape Google? We round up some of our favourite thoughts from the week gone by.
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Surrealist Poetry from Ronnie McGrath
Ronnie McGrath joins us on May 9th for the Caribbean Literary Salon, in conversation with Kerry Young and Kevin LeGendre about his time in Jamaica and how it has influenced his writing. In the next few days we'll be publishing an interview we did with Ronnie, but in the meantime, here he is reading a short piece of his…
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Writers’ Room: Kerry Young
This week we speak to novelist Kerry Young about capturing the colour and history of Jamaica in her two novels 'Pao' and 'Gloria'. We find out why she wrote both novels entirely in longhand, and hear why feedback - even from people you don't like - is always important.
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Monday Reads: “Dublinesque”
Nominated for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, Enrique Vila-Matas' novel pursues a retired publisher through a landscape of great literature. Haunted by a dream of Dublin, a place he has never visited, he persuades three writers to join him on a journey to the cemetery where Paddy Dignam was buried in James Joyce’s Ulysses, to hold a funeral…
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Islington Word Festival 2013 Programme Announced
Last year's Islington Word Festival was a great success, and we're delighted it's returned for another year. Spanning all of next month, the festival is packed with events exploring reading, writing, and free expression all across our local London borough, including contributions from our Translators in Residence showcasing their work with local schools. There'll also be…
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Monday Reads: “Flight Behaviour”
Reluctant housewife Dellarobia Turnbow climbs the mountain trail behind her house with the intent of "throwing her life away" and consummating an affair she has been having with a young man. But what she discovers at the top of the trail is no man, but something else entirely: a sea of fiery orange butterflies, displaced from their normal migration to…
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The Week in Ideas, 19th April 2013
The rocky road to libel reform; secret filming in North Korea; a celebration of young novelists; books called to be banned in the USA. We unpick some key ideas in the world of free speech and literature from the week gone by.
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Kerry Young Reads from her New Book, ‘Gloria’
Kerry Young comes to Free Word on the 9th of May for the Caribbean Literary Salon, to talk about Jamaican writing with Kevin LeGendre and Ronnie McGrath. Young was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to a Chinese father and mother of mixed Chinese-African heritage. Here she reads from her new novel, "Gloria", set in Jamaica in 1938, when a violent…
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Monday Reads: “Ali & Ramazan”
Ali & Ramazan tells the true story of two boys who meet in an Istanbul orphanage who become close friends, and then lovers. Though they care deeply for each other, they suffer terrible hardship at both the hands of the orphanage's headmaster and the country's mandatory military service laws. It was written by Turkish author and journalist…
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Monday Reads: “A Week in December”
Last week we hosted the launch of Cityread London, a campaign to spread a love of books and reading to the widest possible audience throughout the capital. The programme responds to the themes and ideas of one book, with bookclubs, workshops, special events, discussions and performances responding to the text scattered across the city throughout April. This year's…
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Writers’ Room: Audrey Niffenegger
The author of 'The Time Traveller's Wife' talks to us about the future of books, inventing rules for time travel, and the ballet adaptation of her story 'The Raven Girl', which opens at the Royal Opera House in May.
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Monday Reads: Books to Change the World
In January, the Reading Agency held a reception at 10 Downing Street to celebrate the success of their Summer Reads programme, which helps 4-11 year-olds to read six books over the summer holidays. They asked young volunteers to the programme to recommend one book they thought could change the world - here's what they had to say: A Thousand…
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Monday Reads: “Is That a Fish in Your Ear?”
From foreign films to philosophy, David Bellos' book explores the universal human question of how we make ourselves understood to other people. How do you translate a joke? An insult? A custom? What's the difference between a native tongue and a learned one? Bold and insightful, Bellos explodes received ideas about the art of translation and explains why it…
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Monday Reads: “Free Speech - A Very Short Introduction”
As the Leveson enquiry collides with the Defamation Bill, issues of press freedom, libel reform and internet privacy are all out on the table. Complex questions are being asked in Parliament and the papers, and you'd be forgiven if some of it's gone over your head. Thankfully, we have a solution. There a few better places to start…
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Past Event: A Literary Evening with Oksana Zabuzhko
Wed 5 Jun 2013
7:30pmRich Mix
While the Free Word Centre is closed to the public over the summer for refurbishment works, we’re highlighting some great events from elsewhere in London related to literature, literacy and free expression. -- The Dash Café with English PEN and the PEN Atlas are delighted to welcome Ukrainian authorOksana Zabuzhko …
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Past Event: First Editions, Second Thoughts
An auction of fifty contemporary first edition books, annotated by their authors.
Doors: 7:15pm, Tues 21 May. (Auction 7:30). Viewings: 9am - 4:30pm, Mon 20 May & Tue 21 May.
Sotheby's
A charity auction for English PEN of 50 contemporary first editions, annotated by their authors. In partnership with Sotheby’s, English PEN is delighted to share plans for a unique auction on the evening of 21 May at Sotheby’s in London. All proceeds raised on the night will go to benefit English PEN’s core programmes to…
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Past Event: The Caribbean Literary Salon
Kevin Le Gendre in conversation with Kerry Young and Ronnie McGrath.
Thu 9 May 2013
7:15pmFree Word Lecture Theatre
May is the month in which the English managed to drive the Spanish from Jamaica in 1655, and at the Caribbean Literary Salon, we welcome, this May, two writers from the island, hosted by Kevin Le Gendre (Guyana/Grenada). Returning to read from her new novel, Gloria, is Kerry Young (Jamaica), author of the Costa First Novel and Commonwealth Book…
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Past Event: Tired of Being Black? Try Being Irish.
Wed 8 May 2013
6:30pmFree Word Lecture Theatre
Blackness is both defining and limiting for writers, who have to juggle their creative instincts with the sometimes prejudicial requirements of publishing houses and literary programmers. Gabriel Gbadamosi's novel Vauxhall and Colin Grant's memoir Bageye at the Wheel both feature child narrators who act as go-betweens between black and white worlds. In a night mixing…
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Past Event: An Evening with Matt Haig
Tue 7 May 2013
6:30pmFree Word Lecture Theatre
Matt Haig, Booktrust’s online writer in residence, will be launching his new novel, the excellent and touching The Humans, a novel about an alien on a secret mission to Earth, where he encounters life, love and peanut butter sandwiches. Join us in celebrating the launch of Matt’s book by watching him in conversation with an author …
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Past Event: Literary Translation Centre at the London Book Fair 2013
A hub for learning, debate and networking for everyone passionate about translation.
Mon 15 Apr - Wed 17 Apr
The London Book Fair at Earl's Court
A coming together for publishers, translators, authors, editors, students and anyone passionate about the art and business of literary translation, the Literary Translation Centre presents a programme of lively events across three days at the London Book Fair. With introductions to the craft, explanations of what publishers look for, interactive translation games and profiles of key markets, this is a…
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Past Event: Young Adult Fiction: Coming Out of the Closet
Thu 21 Feb 2013
6:30pmFree Word Lecture Theatre
This panel discussion will explore the portrayal of gay and lesbian characters and relationships in books for teens and young adults. While the US has recently seen something of an explosion in LGBT books for teens, there are still very few LGBT characters in books for this age group written and published in the UK. And although some recent well-known…
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Past Event: The Caribbean Literary Salon
Thu 14 Feb 2013
7:15pmFree Word Lecture Theatre
The third Caribbean Literary Salon brings together award-winning writers from across the Caribbean in an intimate atmosphere to read from and discuss their work. Join us this cold, romantic Valentine's Day with Yvvette Edwards (Montserrat), author of Cupboard Full of Coats, and Raymond Antrobus (Jamaica), author of the recently released Shapes & Disfigurements Of Raymond Antrobus will be…
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Past Event: The Caribbean Literary Salon
Thu 8 Nov 2012
7:15pmFree Word Hall
The second Caribbean Literary Salon, hosted by Kevin Le Gendre (Trinidad), features acclaimed poet Maureen Roberts (Grenada), whose My Grandmother Sings to Me, was published by Bogle-L’Ouverture in 2003; and Lawrence Scott (Trinidad & Tobago), a highly acclaimed novelist who has won the Tom-Gallon Award (1986), Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (1999) and been nominated for the International Impac Dublin Literary Award (2006). …
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Past Event: African Book Festival
October 26th and 27th
Free Word Hall
Curated by two childhood friends from Ghana – Will Essilfie and Nii Ayikwei Parkes – the African Book Festival is very much a festival about books. It evolved out of an earlier event run by Nii called the African Book Market, responding to complaints about a lack of range of books from Africa in bookstores. He invited publishers to send…
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Past Event: Arab Israeli Book Review
Tue 23 Oct 2012
7:30pmFree Word Lecture Theatre
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander Only in London by Hanan Al-Shaykh Join writer and lecturer Ariel Kahn and celebrated novelist Shahidha Bari for an interactive, informal and illuminating discussion about these fascinating books. The titles explore the complex relationship between the Diaspora and…
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Past Event: Wordstock 2012
A day of delicious inspirational stuff to give your writing a boost and a blast
Sat 13 Oct 2012
10:00amFree Word Hall
The first-ever Wordstock happened last year on a Saturday, in autumn, at the leaf-strewn Free Word Centre. There was a golden girl who played the harp to string stories together. A crocodile walk for ambulant writers. A bloke who talked a lot of rubbish—the start of Throwaway Lines, a collaborative writing project that continues to turn &lsquo…