Birkbeck participates in Cityread London
Throughout April, Birkbeck will be participating in the London-wide festival Cityread...
Throughout April, Birkbeck will be participating in the London-wide festival Cityread. Academics from Birkbeck’s Department of English and Humanities and Department of History, Classics and Archaeology will be holding talks and workshops at libraries across London. Birkbeck will also be running a creative writing competition during the festival.
Novelist and creative writing lecturer Julia Bell will be explaining the techniques for creating characters that last for generations, such as Dickens’ Oliver Twist, Scrooge or Miss Havisham on 3 April at Kensington Central Library.
On 16 April, at Islington Central Library, Professor Hilary Fraser will be talking about Dickens’ relationship with London, the city which is so important in his writing.
The following day, 17 April, Professor Jerry White , will explore the forces of law and order in Dickens’ London at Tower Hamlets History Library and Archive. The Metropolitan Police Force was just eight years old when serial publication of Oliver Twist began in 1837.
On 18 April you can watch a viewing of David Lean’s legendary 1948 film-version of Oliver Twist, at Willesden Green Library Centre. Dr Carolyn Burdett will provide an introduction to the film.
Dr Nicola Brown, who lectures in Victorian Studies at Birkbeck, will discuss the legacy of Dickens’ representation of poor children in London, at the Marcus Garvey Library in Tottenham on 19 April.
Competition
Dickens wrote most of his novels in monthly or weekly instalments which were published in newspapers and in his own publications like ‘Household Words’ and ‘All the Year Round.’ Could you write an enticing extract of a London story that would make the reader want more? Entries must be no more than 1,000 words long and your story must be set somewhere in contemporary London.
The writer of the winning entry will be awarded a £200 Waterstones gift voucher.
All entries must be received by midnight on Friday 27 April 2012. Entries received later than this date will not be considered. The winning entry will be chosen by Julia Bell, novelist and senior lecturer on Birkbeck’s Creative Writing MA. The winner will be announced on Friday 18 May on Birkbeck, University of London’s prospective student webpage at bbk.ac.uk/tryit. The judge’s decision is final.
All entries must be typed. Send your entry, together with your full name, postal and email address and telephone number, either as a Word file to k.potts@bbk.ac.uk or by post to ‘Serial London Writing Competition, External Relations, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7HX.’