To help mark the National Year of Reading, the LRC and the English, Film and Languages Curriculum Area team liaised with the University of Leicester to create our very own literary event, which was held in the University’s Peter Williams Lecture Theatre on Friday 17th April.
The event was attended by staff and students from WQE, who were welcomed by Dr. Simon Dixon from the University Library and Professor Mary Ann Lund from the University’s School of Arts. This was followed by an introduction to the event from our own Sukhdeep Sangha and then a talk on the merits of studying English by Dr. Sreya Datta, Postdoctorial Fellow in the School of Arts. Sreya then introduced a short talk from two current students of English who shared their experiences, including the use of live blogging events and coursework as modes of assessment and how flexible the courses are in content. They discussed how taught subjects can be blended across academic fields, and how various courses, such as their Journalism BA, can prepare students with employability skills for the modern world.
Then came the main event, as Sreya conducted a vibrant and interesting discussion with the authors; Manish Chauhan, a WQE Alumnus who has recently had his first novel Belgrave Road published by Faber & Faber, and Kit de Waal, an established award-winning author who has written for children and adults and whose first novel My Name is Leon has been televised, starring Lenny Henry.
The authors described their experiences of being writers of colour and how this impacted on their writing, partly due to external cultural expectations and marketing pressures, driven by profit making in the publishing industry, and how they reconciled this with their authentic voice. They also gave glimpses into their creative motivations and processes, touching on the importance of ‘just writing’ even though initial efforts may be ‘bad writing’ and how through failure they can become resilient and improve. The event ended with a lively Q&A session with lots of questions arising from our students and staff, followed by a book signing.
Sukhdeep shared the following critique of the event with the authors:
‘Can I add our tremendous thanks to you for this event. We have received so much positive feedback from students, many asking for more such opportunities in the future. Kit and Manish, thanks so much for your generosity and open discussion. I think the points about resilience and diving into writing were so powerful. Students spend endless time over-agonizing creative pieces; they quickly lose momentum. They don’t give themselves the opportunity to play with their own voices or develop them. Kit, what you said about writing to entertain the reader also struck a chord – students are told through school to look for authorial intention, it was refreshing for them to be able to think about the entertainment value of great literature and the importance of pleasure.’