Event overview
吃瓜网 Writers' Centre and Too Little/Too Hard present writers Julia Bell and Holly Pester in conversation
This conversation between Julia Bell and Holly Pester will explore creative writing pedagogy and practice, universities, dreams and communities, particularly in relation to brilliant essays that both writers have published on this subject in Too Little/ Too Hard.
In 鈥楶edagogies of Panic: Teaching, Dreaming and Writing鈥� Holly Pester examines the complex relations between dreaming and sociopolitical structures, in particular the structure of the neoliberal university. Guiding us through her wonderful course 鈥楧reaming and Writing鈥�, Pester examines the potential of dreams as conduits for writing and their obverse, the abstraction of experience in marketised HE dreamspace: does our unconscious, too, become colonised by performance metrics and production targets?
鈥業n Praise of Bad Writing鈥� Julia Bell examines the transformative potential of 鈥榖ad writing鈥� and of the creative writing workshop as a place of refuge and resistance. Creative writing as an academic discipline, she argues, is a radical space not simply for writing but one of communal engagement.
JULIA BELL is a Reader in Creative Writing and writer who teaches at Birkbeck, University of London. She has published widely across poetry, non-fiction and fiction. As well as the author of three novels she is the co-editor of bestselling The Creative Writing Coursebook, and her most recent book-length essay on attention in the internet age, Radical Attention has been recommended by Ali Smith as one of the books for the next twenty years. Her collection of poetry Hymnal was nominated as Welsh book of the Month and her essays and short stories have been published in the Times Literary Supplement, the New Statesman, The Paris Review and Prospect as well as broadcast on the BBC. As well as working at Birkbeck she has given talks and workshops across many contexts for London Zoo, RIBA, the Selfridges Group, MAD/Fest, and the British Council.
HOLLY PESTER is a poet, writer, and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre studies at University of Essex. Her publications include The Lodgers (2024) and Comic Timing (2021), both with Granta.
The event will be chaired by editors and writers Livia Franchini and Lucy Mercer.
This is a free, in person event and there is no need to register.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Feb 2025 | 5:00pm - 6:00pm |
Accessibility
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