Event - this is a past event

Creating Worlds, real and imagined. Place Writing in creative prose

Name: Creating Worlds, real and imagined. Place Writing in creative prose
Start: 28 May 2025 9:45 am
End: 28 May 2025 4:30 pm
Location: Bloomsbury Room, G35, Ground Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

Dates

28 May 2025
This is a past event

Time

9:45 am to 4:30 pm

Location

Bloomsbury Room, G35, Ground Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

Institute

Institute of English Studies

Event type

Conference

Contact

IESEvents@sas.ac.uk

Email only

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This one-day symposium will consider the strategies prose writers use to explore place and their relationship with the environment, both real and imagined.

The creation of setting is central to the way in which writers bring their worlds to life. This conference will explore how fiction and non-fiction prose writers draw on the idea of place and identity in their creative practice. The day will take us through the streets of London, across the UK, over the coast into Europe and beyond...

The day will consist of talks, panels, and Q&A discussions, offering a variety of topics such as nature writing and fictional worldbuilding. Speakers include Professor Nicola Watson, Cal Flynn, Angela Hui, Priscilla Morris, and Freya Berry. There will also be a panel of writers from the OU discussing the role of setting in genre fiction and Writing the Coast, a project which explores the literary heritage of our coastline.

This symposium is part of a programme of events produced by the Contemporary Cultures of Writing Research Group at the Open University. It is supported by OpenARC, the Open University Arts Research Centre. With additional support from the Department of English and Creative Writing at the Open University and the Institute of English Studies, the University of London.

Registration: There is a £25 conference fee. (Refreshments on arrival included)

Provisional Programme- Download a copy here.

09.45 – 10.30	Registration
10.30 – 10.40	Welcome Joanne Reardon
10.40 – 11.25	Panel 1: Rediscovering Place (Chair Dr Lania Knight) Professor Nicola Watson and Cal Flynn
11.25 – 12.25	Panel 2: Exploring Place and Memoir (Chair Dr Samuel Sargeant) Angela Hui (Non Fiction) and Philip Seargeant
12.25 – 13.45	Lunch
13.45 – 14.45	Panel 3: Place in Fiction (Chair Jennie Owen) Priscilla Morris and Freya Berry
14.45 – 15.30	Panel 4: World Building in Genre Fiction Interviews Samuel Sargeant and Emily Bullock, Joanne Reardon
15.30 – 16:15	Panel 5: Writing the Coast (Chair Professor Nicola Watson) Ed Hogan, Lania Knight, Jennie Owen, Emily Bullock
16.15 – 16.30	Plenary and close