A Year in Literature
2005-2006
Talking about Writing
DETAILS OF THREE STRANDS OF THE
MAGDALENE COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE
YEAR IN LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2005-2006
Magdalene Conversations
A centrepiece of the Festival is a series of public symposia on the relationship between writing and other areas of cultural and intellectual activity, including translation, politics, science and painting.
All events in this strand of the Festival are scheduled to last approximately 2 hours unless otherwise stated. Refreshments will be available during or after each event, with the complements of the College and our Sponsors.
Festival Lectures
This major series of lectures by eminent writers is open to the public but pre-reservation is advised. Each lecture will address an important issue in literary studies and the art of writing. Lectures last about 1 hour and will be followed by a reception to which everyone is invited.
Magdalene Readings
All the Magdalene Festival Readings are free of charge and open to everyone.
The duration of a typical reading is 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Unless otherwise stated, all readings are followed by a reception: members of the audience are very warmly invited to stay to meet the speakers. Advanced booking advised for these events. Email litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk. Please note reserved seats are only held until 15 minutes before the beginning of the Reading.
SEAMUS HEANEY: FESTIVAL LAUNCH
Date: Wednesday 5th October
Time: 5.15 pm
Venue: The Cripps Auditorium
Nobel Laureate, SEAMUS HEANEY, will read from his work at this special event to launch the Magdalene Year in Literature Festival.
DECLAN KIBERD
Date : Tuesday 18th October
Time: 5.15 pm
Venue: Benson Hall
DECLAN KIBERD will read from his new book, The Irish Writer and the World.
[This event is hosted jointly with The Cambridge Group for Irish Studies]
DECLAN KIBERD JAMES JOYCE AND THE COMMON CULTURE
A SEMINAR TALK
Date: Tuesday 18th October
Time: 8.45 pm
Venue: Benson Hall
A former Parnell Fellow at Magdalene College, Professor Declan Kiberd currently holds the chair in Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama at University College, Dublin. He has frequently lectured in other universities, including Cambridge and Yale. Declan Kiberd has written many books, including Inventing Ireland, which won the 1997 Irish Times Literature Award for Non-fiction and the Oscar Wilde Award for Literary Achievement. His new book, The Irish Writer and the World, will be published this year. He will be reading from the book at a special event in Magdalene earlier today - see Festival Readings for details.
(This event is co-hosted by the Cambridge Group for Irish Studies)
JOHN HERDMAN, ANDREW LOWNIE, JULIAN RATHBONE
Date: Friday 28th October
Time: 5.15 pm
Venue: Benson Hall
Including readings from their own work by writers JOHN HERDMAN and JULIAN RATHBONE, and a talk by literary agent ANDREW LOWNIE.
Codes, Patterns and Language
Date: Friday 28th October
Time: 8.30 pm
Venue: Benson Hall
With a panel of experts in fields as diverse as the language of Mathematics, cryptic crosswords and the shapes of literary English, the discussion will explore how language functions as a code. Participants include: MARCUS DE SAUTOY, HUGH STEPHENSON and SUSAN WHEELER.
Translation (1)
Date: Wednesday 2nd November
Time: 7.15 pm
Venue: Cripps Auditorium
Translation is a key theme in the Festival this year. In this, the first of three conversations on the art of translating, we shall hear from a 
poet whose work has been translated from Yoruba to English (and vice versa) and from translators of works from Dante to Proust.
Participants include: ELAINE FEINSTEIN, ROBIN KIRKPATRICK, NIYI OSUNDARE and IAN PATTERSON Niyi Osundare’s visit is sponsored by the Judith E Wilson Fund.
Sir GEOFFREY BOWMAN THE COMPOSITION OF LEGISLATION
A PUBLIC LECTURE
Date: Friday 4th November
Time: 5.45 pm
Venue: Benson Hall
Sir Geoffrey Bowman is First Parliamentary Counsel, responsible for turning the wishes of Parliament into coherent law so, not surprisingly, language is very important to him. In his Festival Lecture, he will speak about the special language of the law and about the unique role of his staff in making Acts of Parliament work. Sir Geoffrey taught law at Cambridge and Liverpool Universities and was a practising barrister before joining the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in 1971.
Science and Writing
Date: Tuesday 8th November
Time: 7.15 pm
Venue: Cripps Auditorium
Even the most complex scientific theory has to be written down in some form. Does the necessity of using the English language hinder scientists in their work -- or does it provide a useful tool for scientific discovery? And why have some poets and writers drawn on scientific language in their work? As well as hearing from scientists, we shall enjoy a short reading of some of the best scientific writing. Participants include: JOHN EMSLEY, GEORGINA FERRY, JOHN GURDON, DAVID MORLEY and LALLA WARD.
Biography
Date: Thursday 1st December
Time: 7.15 pm
Venue: Cripps Auditorium
Three leading biographers, including the authors of award-winning biographies of Goethe and of (Magdalene’s own) Samuel Pepys, will talk about the art of writing lives. Participants include: MARK BOSTRIDGE, NICHOLAS BOYLE and CLAIRE TOMALIN
Words and Performance
Date: Sunday 29th January
Time: 2.30 pm to 6.15 pm
Venue: Cripps Auditorium
A special event featuring speakers from the arts, including opera, film and theatre. The afternoon will explore how words contribute to performance and how they are interpreted through gesture, music and image. There will be talks and performances throughout the afternoon. Featuring OWAIN BROWNE, WILL FEATHERSTONE, MIKE NEWELL, JEREMY SAMS, THE JOY OF SIX and ALEX WOODROW.
CAMBRIDGE POETS: LOST GENERATION
Date: Saturday 4th February
Time: 5.30 pm
Venue: Cripps Auditorium
Readings from Cambridge Poets. An evening of readings from two volumes of poetry produced in 1913 and 1922, including some well-known poets and some whose names are less familiar. There will be music from the period, with an introductory talk on student life at the time of the First World War. Refreshments will be served during the event. Reader: ROY MARSDEN; with talks by ELIZABETH LEEDHAM-GREEN and MICHAEL COPP; and music by RHONA McKAIL (soprano) and FRANCOIS SALIGNAT (piano).
EDNA LONGLEY ANTHOLOGISING BRITISH AND IRISH POETRY
A SEMINAR TALK
Date: Tuesday 21st February
Time: 8.45 pm
Venue: Benson Hall
Professor Edna Longley is among the foremost contemporary critics writing on modern Irish and British poetry. Her important influence on Northern Irish literary culture in particular has come about through her many publications, her teaching (especially at Queen's Univesity) and her international standing as a scholar. A former Parnell Fellow at Magdalene, we welcome her back to give this special festival seminar paper.
(This event is co-hosted by the Cambridge Group for Irish Studies)
MICHAEL LONGLEY
Date: Wednesday 22nd February
Time: 8.45 pm
Venue: Benson Hall
A reading by prize-winning poet, MICHAEL LONGLEY.
JUSTIN BARNARD, MATTHEW FRANCIS, WILL FRASER, MERCER SIMPSON, NEIL WENBORN, JOHN WELCH
Date: Saturday 25th February
Time: 3.00-4.15 pm and 4.30-5.45 pm
Venue: Benson Hall
An afternoon event with some of Magdalene's highly-acclaimed poets and writers, including: MATTHEW FRANCIS, NEIL WENBORN, MERCER SIMPSON, JOHN WELCH, JUSTIN BARNARD and WILL FRASER. During the event there will be an interval, at which tea will be served.
JONATHAN BATE GREEN SHAKESPEARE
A PUBLIC LECTURE
Date: Friday 3rd March
Time: 5.15 pm
Venue: Cripps Auditorium
Professor Jonathan Bate is among the foremost Shakespearean scholars of his generation. His book The Genius of Shakespeare is essential reading for every English student. His work on the Romantics includes a highly acclaimed biography of John Clare as well as important writings on the developing literary field of eco-criticism. After a number of years holding the King Alfred Chair at Liverpool, Jonathan Bate is now Professor of English at Warwick University. He is currently writing a book on culture and ideas in Elizabethan England.
NICK DRAKE and JOHN MOLE
Date: Wednesday 8th March
Time: 5.15 pm
Venue: Benson Hall
JOHN MOLE and NICK DRAKE, award-winning Magdalene poets, will read.
Make an evening of it and stay around for the event in the Conversation Strand: Walking the City:Writing the City!
Walking the City: Writing the City
Date: Tuesday 8th March
Time: 7.15 pm
Venue: Cripps Auditorium
How does a pedestrian-eye view of the urban environment inform literature of the city? This conversation explores writing and the minute details of the city - from worn pavements to architectural detailing. The speakers include experts on Classical Rome, and contemporary London. Participants include: STEPHEN GAMES (biographer of Pesvner and Betjamen), writer IAIN SINCLAIR (author of Lights out for the Territory), historians CHRIS KELLY and JOHN PATTERSON, and the Director of the British School in Rome, ANDREW WALLACE-HADRILL, Chaired by CATHARINE EDWARDS.
RENAISSANCE POETRY: MODERN SETTINGS
Date: Friday 17th March
Time: 3.00pm
Venue: Benson Hall
Virelai, the early music ensemble, are engaged in a fascinating project to commission contemporary settings of Renaissance music. In this recital, they will play some of the newly-composed pieces as well as some more familiar Dowland settings. Some of the composers will be present to introduce their work and talk about the particular challenges they have faced. You are invited make an evening of it, with a further two events in our reading strand: Clive Wilmer and Timothy Steele (at 5.00pm) and Cahal Dallat (at 8.45pm)
Versification and Metre: The State of Play
Date: Saturday 18th March
Time: From 9.30 am. This is an all-day event.
Venue: Benson Hall
Participants must register by 11th March at the latest Click on One-Day Conferences for details.
Should we class poetry as something different from prose? Why do we value writing in verse? What effects can metre achieve? How do we distinguish rhythm from metre? Should we be looking at versification and the art of poetry or is the search for a science of metrics more likely to be fruitful? This day-conference aims to assess the current thinking about verse from aesthetic, technical and literary angles. It will bring together poets and musicians with scholars working in literature, linguistics and poetics. The emphasis will be on debate focusing on first principles. Participants include: DEREK ATTRIDGE, RICHARD D CURETON, NIGEL FABB, SOPHIE HANNAH, M E J HUGHES, MICHAEL HURLEY, SIMON JARVIS, JOHN KERRIGAN, PAUL KIPARSKY, CHRISTOPHER B MacCULLY, DAVID MAW, DREW MILNE, JOHN MOLE, BRENNAN O’DONNELL, RUTH PADEL, IAN PATTERSON, CLIVE SCOTT, TIMOTHY STEELE.
RUTH PADEL: The Choice of METRE
A Public Lecture
Date: Saturday 18th March
Time: 2.00pm
Venue: The Cripps Auditorium
Forming the key-note lecture to a major conference on Versification and Metrics, Ruth Padel’s talk will address the nature of the choice to versify in the twenty-first century. The award-winning poet will discuss how and why writers decide to use verse and metre. The Lecture is open to the general public as well as conference delegates. Guests are invited to stay on after the lecture for a short reading by poet Sophie Hannah. Please note that there is no reception after this lecture.
C S Lewis: The Renaissance Man
Date: Saturday 22nd April
Time: From 9.30 am. This is an all-day event.
Venue: Cripps Auditorium
Participants must register by 15th April at the latest (for details of how to book, see inside back page).
The day will include talks and discussions on C S Lewis (the first holder of the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature and Professorial Fellow of Magdalene College), as literary critic, thinker, teacher and writer. As well as sharing memories of Lewis from some of those who knew and worked with him, the symposium will seek to assess Lewis’ impact on medieval studies and to ask why his creative writing, such as the Narnia books and the Screwtape Letters, are still so widely read and enjoyed 40 years after his death. Participants include SIMON BARRINGTON-WARD, STEPHEN LOGAN, JILL MANN, MICHAEL WARD.
MICHAEL BYWATER FROM BOOK TO GAME
A SEMINAR TALK
Date: Thursday 27th April
Time: 5.00 pm
Venue: Benson Hall
The Magdalene Year in Literature writer-in-residence for the Easter Term 2006, Michael Bywater will talk about the way best-selling books are turned into computer games. His experience working with Douglas Adams on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game will inform his discussion of this new trend to transform the written word into another medium and to alter the cultural value of the book.
SIMON ARMITAGE
Date: Friday 28th April (POSTPONED FROM 17th March)
Time: 5.00 pm
Venue: Cripps Auditorium
SIMON ARMITAGE will read from his recent poetry.
ARTHUR SALE: The Letters
Date: Saturday 29th April
Time: 2.30 pm
Venue: Benson Hall
With BAMBER GASCOIGNE
For the first time, the letters which so delighted ARTHUR SALE's many friends are being published with a preface by JOHN SIMPSON. This Magdalene College publication, selected and edited by two of Arthur's former pupils, ROBERT RICKARD and RICHARD VERITY, is full of his wit, compassion and subversion.
Literature and Painting
Date: Saturday April 29th
Time: 5.15 pm
Venue: Cripps Auditorium
This session will explore the strong bond between painting and literature. The speakers will draw on examples from both literature ands the visual arts to illuminate this special relationship. Participants include: DUNCAN ROBINSON, GREGORY NORMINTON and HELEN VENDLER.
LES MURRAY
Date: Tuesday 2nd May
Time: 5.00 pm
Venue: Cripps Auditorium
Leading Australian poet, LES MURRAY will read.
HERMIONE LEE EDITH WHARTON AND BIOGRAPHY
A PUBLIC LECTURE
Date: Friday May 5th
Time: 5.15 pm
Venue: Cripps Auditorium
Goldsmiths Professor of English Literature and Fellow of New College, Oxford, Hermione Lee presented Channel 4 Television's first book programme, Book Four, between 1982 and 1984 and is a regular broadcaster for BBC radio. She is also a highly respected reviewer. Her first book, The Novels of Virginia Woolf, was published in 1977. She edited the influential anthology of women's short stories The Secret Self: Short Stories by Women and is the author of Willa Cather: A Life Saved Up. Her biography of Virginia Woolf won the 1997 British Academy's Rose Mary Crawshay Prize for English Literature. She is working on a new life of Edith Wharton.
HÉLÈNE CIXOUS FESTIVAL LECTURE
A PUBLIC LECTURE
Date: Friday 6th June
DUE TO ILL-HEALTH, PROF CIXOUS VERY MUCH REGRETS THAT SHE HAS POSTPONED THE LECTURE PLANNED FOR 6th JUNE UNTIL LATER IN THE SUMMER -- FURTHER DETAILS WILL BE POSTED HERE WHEN THEY ARE CONFIRMED.
Translation (2)
Date: Friday June 9th
Time: 7.15 pm
Venue: The Cripps Auditorium
In the second of our discussions of translation, we shall hear from speakers who are both poets and translators about how their experiences of translating and being translated informs their work. Participants include: MICHAEL HOFFMAN, ROD MENGHAM, JO SHAPCOTT and GEORGE SZIRTES.
MICHAEL HOFMANN and LAURENCE JOSEPH
Date: Saturday 10th June
Time 5.15 pm
Venue: Benson Hall
Two more of Magdalene’s best known poets, MICHAEL HOFMANN and LAURENCE JOSEPH, will read.
Translation (3)
Date: Saturday 10th June
Time: 8.30 pm
Venue: The Cripps Auditorium
The third and final event in the Translation strand of the Festival focuses on the particular challenges and sensitivities of translating Holy Words. Participants include: NICHOLAS DE LANGE, EDWARD KESSLER, ADAM NICOLSON, and HENRY WANSBOROUGH
SOPHIE HANNAH
Date: Friday 16th June
Time: 5.15 pm
Venue: Benson Hall
SOPHIE HANNAH will read from her new collection of short stories.
Diaries
Date: Saturday 17th June
Time: 5.15 pm
Venue: Benson Hall
The diary is an important form in the literary history of Magdalene College, which houses the important, coded journal of the seventeenth-century writer Samuel Pepys. At this session in our conversations strand, MICHAEL BYWATER will be among the participants who discuss the genesis of the diary from Pepys’ account of the Great Fire of London to the special view of the Iraq war offered by the Baghdad Blogger.
VERNON WATKINS CENTENNIAL EVENT
Date: Tuesday 27th June
Time: 5.00 pm
Venue: Cripps Auditorium
To mark the centenary of VERNON WATKINS' birth Magdalene is hosting a celebration of the writing of this remarkable poet.Watkins was an undergraduate at Magdalene, having won a scholarship to the College. A major figure in Anglo-Welsh writing, he enjoyed a sometimes tempestuous friendship with Dylan Thomas. The event will include reading of Watkins' poetry and an appraisal of his contribution to twentieth-century literature by leading scholar and critic, M. WYNN THOMAS.
Additional Events
The dates of the following events in 2006 are to be confirmed.
Writing the Political Moment. A discussion of how political events are seen through the eyes of a political satirist, a memoir-writer and a journalist.
Writing History. Leading Tudor historian, Eamon Duffy, will chair a discussion of how history can be written for the twenty-first century.
The Function of Criticism. A discussion involving literary reviewers, academics and teachers of English looking at what literary criticism is and what function critics can claim to fulfil in the new environment created by electronic publishing.
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