Partner Projects

MA in 21st Century Literature

University of Lincoln 

Alluvium author Dr Siân Adiseshiah is Programme Leader for the University of Lincoln's MA in 21st Century Literature – one of the first masters in the UK and indeed the world on 21st Century writing. It is a taught postgraduate programme which aims to give students a critical understanding of this exciting new field. The post-millennial context offers new opportunities for scholarship and innovative thinking about literature, and it is already clear that a great deal of original and innovative research is taking place in 21^st century writing, culture and theory. The peculiarly rich features of 21^st century study include not only attention to texts that are genuinely and properly contemporary but also the particularly potent symbolic evocations that arise from the new millennium. In addition to millennial discourses, the new political context of a post 9/11 world has already generated an abundance of creative and critical writing that seems both to revive a pre-End of History philosophy and to offer new forms and tropes to express the contemporary moment.

Website: http://maenglish.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/ma-in-21st-century-literature/

Twitter: @LincolnEnglish

C21 | A Journal of 21st Century Writings

Gylphi

Alluvium authors Dr Katy Shaw and Dr Siân Adiseshiah are both working on the Editorial Board of Gylphi's new journal C21. Dedicated to examining the genres, forms of publication and the circulation of 21st-century writings, C21 Literature has created a critical, discursive space for the promotion and exploration of 21st- century writings in English. It addresses a range of narratives in contemporary culture, from the novel, poem and play to hypertext, digital gaming and contemporary creative writing and features engaged theoretical pieces alongside new unpublished creative works and investigate the challenges that new media present to traditional categorizations of literary writing.

Website: http://www.gylphi.co.uk/c21/index.php

Twitter: @C21Literature

Twenty-First Century British Fiction | A Symposium

Birkbeck

Alluvium author Bianca Leggett recently co-organised a two-day conference dedicated to 21st century British fiction at Birkbeck, University of London with Tony Venezia. The conference considered and promoted current perspectives on the fiction of British writers in the twenty-first century. The post-millennial decade witnessed a strikingly inventive new literary generation emerge and establish itself with the publication of works by such authors as Monica Ali, Nicola Barker, Steven Hall, Philip Hensher, Tom McCarthy, Patrick Neate and Zadie Smith. Concurrently, there have been increasingly sophisticated engagement with genre fiction from Susanna Clarke, David Mitchell, China Miéville and Sarah Waters. Many of these writers have featured on Granta's decennial lists of Best Young British Novelists; with the next list due in 2013 it seems only fitting and appropriate to survey the twenty-first century's first decade of British fiction.

The event was held on Friday 11th and Saturday 12th May 2012 with keynote speakers including Professor Robert Eaglestone (Royal Holloway) and Dr Joe Brooker (Birkbeck).

Website: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/arts/news/twenty-first-century-british-fiction-a-symposium

Twitter: @C21_symposium

Contemporary Fiction Research Seminar Series

IES, Birkbeck

Alluvium author Zara Dinnen is co-organiser (with Tony Venezia) for this monthly research seminar series which is run as part of the Institute of English Studies' serminar programmes. The series focuses on all aspects of contemporary fiction. Its aims are to discuss a diverse selection of contemporary fictions: from novels to comics, from TV and film to online works; and to consider these works critically, against a broad spectrum of contemporary cultural concerns. Although the focus is primarily for those working in the fields of literary and cultural studies, the group welcomes non-specialists with an interest in the area.

Website: http://events.sas.ac.uk/ies/seminars/332/Contemporary+Fiction+Research+Seminar

Twitter: @IES_London

C21 | Centre for 21st-Century Writings

University of Brighton

Alluvium author Dr Katy Shaw is Director of C21: Centre for 21st-Century Writings in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Brighton. The centre provides a platform for engagement and research development across the fields of new narrative, twenty-first century writings and innovative creative practices in storytelling. It also promotes the interactivity of criticism and practice, fostering critical work on twenty-first century writings, readers and the the future of storie – bringing together scholars, authors, editors and publishers in research conferences, funded collaborations and regular seminar events. The creative practice disciplines C21 represents include creative writing, sequential design and visual narrative, performance arts, film, and digital multi-platform storytelling, while critical work includes the literature of urban regeneration, twenty-first century readerships, current social and political approaches to literary criticism and the evolution of contemporary poetry in English.

Website: http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/research/c21

Twitter: @DrKatyShaw

Contemporary Writers | Critical Essays

Gylphi

Alluvium's Founding & Commissioning Editor Dr Caroline Edwards is co-editing two collections for Gylphi's Contemporary Writers: Critical Essays book series – Maggie Gee: Critical Essays (2015, with Dr Sarah Dillon) and China Miéville: Critical Essays (2015, wth Tony Venezia). Edited by Dr Sarah Dillon, the series presents a new approach to the academic study of living authors. Alluvium author Dennis Duncan is also editing a collection titled Tom McCarthy: Critical Essays (2013).

The titles in this series are devoted to contemporary British, Irish and American authors whose work is popularly and critically valued but on whom a significant body of academic work has yet to be established. Each of the titles in this series is developed out of the best contributions to an international conference on its author; represents the most intelligent and provocative material in current thinking about that author’s work; and suggests future avenues of thought, comparison and analysis. With each title prefaced by an author foreword, this series embraces the challenges of writing on living authors and provides the foundation stones for future critical work on significant contemporary writers.

Website: http://www.gylphi.co.uk/criticalessays/index.php

Twitter: @criticalessays

What Happens Now | 21st-Century Writing in English

University of Lincoln

Alluvium author Dr Siân Adiseshiah is co-organising the University of Lincoln's second biennial What Happens Now international conference, which will take place form 16th-18th July 2012. The conference will act as a forum for what is happening now in terms of academic work on 21st century literature – in poetry, fiction, drama, utopian and dystopian writing, life writing, children’s literature, historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy, travel writing, graphic novels, romantic fiction, crime writing, verbatim drama, musical theatre, post-dramatic theatre, technologically mediated performance, electronically mediated text, performance poetry, and poetic dialogue. Confirmed keynote addresses will be given by Professor Peter Boxall (Sussex), Geoff Dyer, Kathleen Jamie and Tishani Doshi.

Website: http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/campuslife/whatson/eventsconferences/event%20name,8029,en.html

Twitter: @WHN21stCWriting

Weird Council | An International Conference on the Writing of China Miéville

Gylphi, IES, Birkbeck, University of Lincoln

Alluvium's Founding & Commissioning Editor Dr Caroline Edwards is co-organising this two-day international conference dedicated to the writing of China Miéville (with Tony Venezia). The winner of multiple awards, Miéville is one of Britain's eading SF writers and has developed a distinguished body of fictional work since the publication of his first novel, King Rat, in 1999. In addition to nine published novels (with his next forthcoming in May 2012) as well as a collection of short stories, Miéville is also a respected literary critic, political activist and legal scholar.

The conference, which is sponsored by Gylphi, Birkbeck and the University of Lincoln, will take place at Senate House on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th September 2012 and confirmed keynote speakers include Professor Sherryl Vint (Brock University) and Professor Roger Luckhurst (Birkbeck).

Website: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/arts/news/weird-council-the-writing-of-china-mieville

Twitter: @criticalessays

Literary and Critical Theory Seminar

IES, Royal Holloway

Alluvium authors Daniel O'Gorman, Deborah Lilley and Xavier Marco del Pont are currently organising a reading group on literary and critical theory as part of the IES's resaerch seminar series. The reading group is designed to question the extent to which critical theory in the early twenty-first century has both shaped and been shaped by a contextual ‘framing’ of the present. In doing so, the group explores whether today’s theorists, like their more established forebears, can still help to construct the kind of critical language necessary for the establishment of new, more textured understandings of our place in the world. Although the group is aimed primarily at students of English, it is highly interdisciplinary and those with backgrounds in other disciplines are very welcome to attend. 

Website: http://events.sas.ac.uk/ies/seminars/101/Literary+and+Critical+Theory+Seminar

Twitter: @IES_London

Dandelion Postgraduate Arts Journal & Research Network

Alluvium authors Dennis Duncan, Zara Dinnen and Bianca Leggett are all working as Editors for the AHRC-funded Dandelion journal and research network. Launched in 2010, Dandelion is an interdisciplinary journal supporting a range of postgraduate research from across the arts and humanities publishing bi-annual open as well as themed issues. The journal's editorial ethos supports new ideas within the UK postgraduate arts community and runs in tandem with the Dandelion network: a dynamic, online "hub" linking outwards to a wide range of events, groups, and debates.

Website: http://dandelionnetwork.org/

Twitter: @dandelionbbk

Maggie Gee Conference

Gylphi, St Andrews University, University of Lincoln

Alluvium's Founding & Commissioning Editor Dr Caroline Edwards is currently working with Dr Sarah Dillon at the University of St Andrews to organise a conference dedicated to the writing of British novelist Maggie Gee. Since she was selected for Granta’s first list of Best of Young British Novelists in 1983 (in company with Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Martin Amis, Pat Barker, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan and Rose Tremain), Gee has worked in publishing, academic research (gaining a PhD in the twentieth-century novel from Wolverhampton Polytechnic in 1980) and was the first female Chair of the Royal Society of Literature. She is currently working as one of the Society’s Vice Presidents, as well as acting as Visiting Professor of Writing at Sheffield Hallam University.

The conference, whch is jointly suported by Gylphi and St Andrews University will run on Thursday 30th and Friday 31st August 2012 and will feature keynote addresses from Maggie Gee, Professor Susan Alice Fischer (City University of New York) and Dr John Sears (Manchester Metropolitan University).

Website: http://maggiegeeconference.blogspot.co.uk/

Twitter: @criticalessays

First Fictions | A Festival for Readers and Writers

Myriad Editions, University of Sussex

Alluvium's Online Editor Martin Paul Eve is co-organiser of the First Fictions Festival, an exciting series of events designed to celebrate and champion first novels, past and present. Launched by Myriad Editions and the University of Sussex in January 2012, First Fictions will be organising a series of weekend mini festivals and evening events throughout the year, including literary salons for small audiences, speed-dates for new writers to meet agents and editors, and headline events with authors including Kate Mosse, Jackie Kay and Meg Rosoff.

Website: http://www.myriadeditions.com/first-fictions-home

Twitter: @firstfictions

Media Across Borders

University of Roehampton

Alluvium author Dr Iain Robert Smith has recently collaborated with colleagues at the University of Roehampton to establish a research network designed to interrogate the myriad ways in which media content is translated and adapted across cultural borders in the twenty-first century. Funded by the AHRC's Translating Cultures programme, the network brings together academic scholars and industry professionals to discuss the broader significance of cultural translation within the creative industries. Media Across Borders is affiliated with 

Website: http://mediaacrossborders.com/

Twitter: @MABRoehampton

Dalkey Archive Press

Free Word Centre, London

Alluvium author Jennifer Hodgson is UK Editor for Dalkey Archive Press. Founded in 1984, Dalkey Archive Press began in association with the literary magazine Review of Contemporary Fiction and continues to publish experimental literary fiction. The Press has developed working relationships with a number of universities in the United States as well as Europe, including the University of Illinois, Trinity College (Dublin) and the American University in Paris.

Website: http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/ 

Twitter: @Dalkey_Archive

Shakespeare's Global Communities Research Network 

Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham

Alluvium author Dr Sarah Olive is currently working as part of the AHRC-funded "Shakespeare's Global Commuities" research network. The network is run by Dr Erin Sullivan and is building a multi-user digital platform in which academics, theatre practitioners, audience members, and the wider public will debate the meanig and significance of the 70+ intercultural Shakespeare performances that will take place this summer as part of the World Shakespeare Festival, which is a major strand of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

Website: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/edacs/departments/shakespeare/news/2012/global-communities.aspx

Twitter: @WSF2012