Bloomsbury Literary Studies

Contemporary Fiction Research Seminar - University of London, Saturday 30th June

The last Contemporary Fiction Research Seminar of the summer semester at the Institute of Education - University of London, will take place on Saturday June 30 in room 261, on the second floor of Senate House from 2-4 pm.  The session is a special seminar to launch the publication of the anthology Alan Moore and the Gothic Tradition, edited by Dr. Matthew J.A. Green (Nottingham).  There are some fantastic sessions planned and all are welcome (it's free!).  Details of speakers and presentations below:

Matthew J.A. Green (Nottingham): 'Gothic Inheritances: Why Moore? Why Gothic? Why Now?'
Tony Venezia (Birkbeck): 'Soap Opera of the Paranormal’: Surreal Englishness in The Bojeffries Saga'
Maggie Gray (Middlesex): 'A Gothic Politics: Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing and radical ecology'
Monica Germanà (Westminster): 'Madness and the City: The collapse of reason and sanity in Alan Moore's From Hell'

This is the last session from the Contemporary Fiction Research seminar series before a summer break - they will return in the autumn and are currently working on a programme that promises to be exciting and eclectic.  More details to follow...

For more information visit their website.

Jenny Tighe

A Literary Estate - South Oxhey in Words

We are delighted to bring you news of an exciting evening of readings and writing about South Oxhey featuring our author John Schad alongside Michael Crowley (poet), David Reidy (historian) and others.

The event takes place on Saturday 2 June at 7.30 pm at Watford Palace Theatre and, here's the best bit, is free and open to all. More details can be found here.

John Schad, novelist and critic, will read from The Late Walter Benjamin, his new documentary novel which is set in the very early, immediately post-war days of the estate. John grew up on the estate in the 1960s and 70s. We are really excited to have published The Late Walter Benjamin earlier this month: read our interview with John, his guest blog post and the first 2 chapters of the book here!

Michael Crowley, poet and playwright, will read from Close to Home (Five Leaves), a new sequence of poems about the estate.  Michael also grew up in the estate in the 1960s and 70s.

David Reidy, historian, will talk about his new book, Poor But Proud. A History of South Oxhey.

Best of luck to John and all the other speakers - we look forward to hearing all about it next week!

Jenny Tighe

Ideas Allowed: John Schad discusses The Late Walter Benjamin

John Schad will be taking part in a series of Ideas Allowed talks in Hull on the 24th May, discussing and reading from his fantastic new book, The Late Walter Benjamin. Regular visitors to our blog will be more than familiar with this book - we have posted up an interview with John, author guest post and the first 2 chapters from the book in the last couple of weeks. This will be a great opportunity to see the book brought to life by the author!

Tickets may be bought on the door - £5, and £2 all concessions. It starts at 8pm, Thursday 24th May 2012, at the Lonsdale community centre, off Anlaby Road, Hull.

For any queries, please get in touch with Julie on 07875548472 or at [email protected]

Do keep an eye on all the other Ideas Allowed events - Will Self will be giving the third talk on October 17th 2012 at Hull's Orchard Park Centre!

In Analysis: The Work of Hanif Kureishi

We're delighted to be sponsoring 'In Analysis: The Work of Hanif Kureshi' - an event running on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th of Feburary at the University of Roehampton. Hanif Kureishi is one of the most exciting and controversial voices in contemporary literature - this conference brings together the most vibrant critics and scholars in contemporary fiction, and looks at his work within a wider cultural framework.

'Screenings of rare footage, an exclusive viewing of archival material and a special session with Kureishi’s creative collaborators' will be included in the conference, but, in addition, Hanif Kureishi will be reading from work in progress and discussing his career with Sebastian Groes (Roehampton) and Susan Fischer (The City University of New York) on the evening of Saturday 25 February. This event is free and will be taking place in the Portrait Room, Grove House, Froebel, starting at 7pm. Not to be missed!

Sebastian Groes is one of the series editors for our Contemporary Critical Perspectives series - copies of all books in the series will be on display at the event. With books already published on Julian Barnes, Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan, I'm sure that a writer like Hanif Kureishi might make an appearance in the series in future years! At the end of this year (Nov 2012 in the UK, Jan 2013 in the US) we'll be publishing a volume on Salman Rushdie - more to follow on that! For now, you can read digital previews on the most recent books by clicking on the preview buttons below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jenny Tighe

Marketing Exeutive

UK National Poetry Day 2011

Happy UK National Poetry Day! We're all poetry fans here at Continuum and if you are too, you’ll be keen to check out the official website which lists poetry-themed events going on up and down the country, including a National Poetry Live event happening right across the road from our London office at Waterloo’s South Bank Centre.

National Poetry Day has also seen the announcement of the winner of the 2011 Forward Prize, one of the most high profile poetry prizes in the country. The winner this year was Scottish writer John Burnside, who took the £10,000 prize for his collection Black Cat Bone in the face of stiff competition from the likes of Geoffrey Hill and Sean O'Brien.

For anyone interested in brushing up on their poetry (either for study or personal pleasure), you might be interested in taking a look at one of our most popular books here at Continuum, The Poetry Toolkit by Rhian Williams of the University of Glasgow. It’s a really accessible (and easy to reference) guide to how to get the most out of reading poetry. As usual, I’ve posted a free preview so you can judge for yourself!

And here’s another sneak preview: I’ve just received the manuscript for a new book we’re publishing next year, On Modern Poetry: From Theory to 'Total Criticism'. From what I’ve read so far, it’s shaping up to be a fantastic book that offers us a new holistic approach to reading poetry that transcends traditional academic divides between theory and close reading. Robert’s book is out in May, so keep your eyes peeled on this blog for more details in the very near future.

Happy reading!

David
Senior Editor
Continuum Literary Studies

Continuum - crowned Independent Publisher of the Year and Academic & Professional Publisher of the Year by the Independent Publishers Guild

We are delighted to announce that Continuum have been named Independent Publisher of the Year and Academic and Professional Publisher of the Year by the IPG (Independent Publisher's Guild) at the IPG 2011 Awards, run in association with London Book Fair and The Bookseller.

To find our more (and see a picture of our CEO Oliver Gadsby and Sales & Marketing Director Ken Rhodes at the event) read this article in The Bookseller.

Haaris Naqvi, Acquisitions Editor

The Power of Comics event at MoCCA

The Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art in New York City will be hosting an event on March 17^th with Randy Duncan co-author of The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture.

According the site:

This interactive talk will explore the “inferencing” skills a reader must develop to intuit meaning from a comic book or graphic novel, and will engage the audience in the application of some of those skills. Examples will be drawn primarily from David Mazzucchelli's graphic novel Asterios Polyp and the oeuvre of Will Eisner.

Admission is only $5. For more information visit http://www.moccany.org/content/events

 Kim Petit, Marketing Executive

 

Robert Harvey at Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung

Earlier this month Robert Harvey was invited to the Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung in Berlin to speak about his recently published Witnessness. More details here. To read a preview of this book please click on the widget to the left.

 

 

 
 

Your Guide to the Brooklyn Book Festival

While more fashionable and richer New Yorkers will be brunching in Manhattan this Sunday, some of us will be in Brooklyn celebrating our love of literature at the Brooklyn Book Festival. I should mention that it's Fashion Week here in New York, which means lots of parties and beautiful, rich people spending loads of money on fashion shows that truly have no visible benefit to humanity. The Brooklyn Book Festival will be nothing like that, but the line-up of events promises titillating conversation and the chance to meet a whole host of celebrity authors:  Ashbery and Rushdie and Shtynegart, oh MY! The schedule of events posted on their website looks truly awesome. The whole shindig starts at 10 am on Sunday and goes well into the evening, with high-profile people showing up mostly in the evening. There are a staggering number of things going on all day and it seems many of the lectures require tickets (distributed for free an hour before each event at the information booth). So with so much to do, here's an annotated hour-by-hour guide to what I think you should attend. Please keep in mind this is completely biased.

10:00am

It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll (But I Like It). Musically inspired readings by three chart-topping American fiction writers: Steve Almond (Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life), Jennifer Egan (A Visit from the Goon Squad), and Colson Whitehead (Sag Harbor). Followed by Q&A.
ST. FRANCIS AUDITORIUM

11:00am

Kafka on the Block. In conjunction with BAM’s Next Wave Festival performance of Metamorphosis (Vesturport Theatre, Iceland) directed by Gísli Örn Gardarsson, BAM hosts a panel discussion on Kafka’s legacy with Joshua Cohen (Witz); Francine Prose,  (Reading Like a Writer), and Matthew Sharpe (The Sleeping Father; Nothing Is Terrible; Jamestown). Moderated by Liesl Schillinger, contributor to The New York Times Book Review.
ST. FRANCIS MARONEY SCREENING ROOM

I’m intrigued. I haven’t read any Joshua Cohen, though he’s supposed to be quite good. I’m extremely curious to know what Francine Prose has to say about Kafka.

12:00pm

The Legacy of Zinn (1922-2010). Amy Goodman, David Zirin and others discuss the intellectual and popular influence of Howard Zinn, Brooklyn-born  historian, author, anarchist, socialist, activist, and playwright with an introductory dramatic reading from the 423-page file on Zinn kept by the FBI and recently released through the Freedom of Information Act.
BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

If “A People’s History of the United States” didn’t shape your intellectual pursuits at a very impressionable age, then I’m sorry. This should be fun.

1:00pm

Paul Auster in Conversation with John Ashbery, this year’s 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival BoBi Award winner. 
ST. FRANCIS AUDITORIUM

Yep, can’t argue with Auster and Ashbery. Although, Auster’s around all the time. That said…you should probably go to this:

Hallucinations of Your Neighbors. Three writers whose work pokes across the dividing line between reality and fantasy share their work and thoughts on just how far a writer can go. Short readings and a discussion with Cristina García (The Lady Matador’s Hotel), Steven Millhauser (Dangerous Laughter), and Peter Straub (A Dark Matter).  
ST. FRANCIS MCARDLE HALL

Steven Millhauser is both an extremely talented writer and a wonderful professor. His story “The Room in the Attic” from Dangerous Laughter is one of the most haunting things I have ever read.

2:00pm

Eating Our Words. Do chefs ever get the equivalent of writer’s block in the kitchen? Do food writers ever lose their appetite after a difficult day at the keyboard? Gabrielle Hamilton (chef and owner of Prune), Ted Lee (one half of the James Beard Award–winning cookbook writing team of Matt Lee and Ted Lee), Francis Lam (food columnist for Salon), and Melanie Rehak (Eating for Beginners) discuss the differences and similarities between writing and eating, thinking and tasting, working out a recipe and working out a sentence.
NORTH STAGE

3:00pm

Finding the Funny: The Humor of the Everyday. Humorists John Hodgman (The Areas of My Expertise), Sloane Crosley (How Did You Get This Number), and Kristen Schaal and Rich Blomquist (The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex) discuss their work.
BOROUGH HALL COURTROOM

Kristen Schaal is absolutely delightful and hilarious.

4:00pm

Live from the NYPL PRESENTS: The Pleasure Seekers:  Salman Rushdie in Conversation with Tishani Doshi. Salman Rushdie talks to novelist, poet and dancer Tishani Doshi about her acclaimed new novel The Pleasure Seekers and about Indian-Pakistani literature and diaspora-Indian literature in general, poetry, dance and, perhaps, the delights of Goan fish curry and chocolate Ganeshes. Introduced by Paul Holdengräber.
ST. FRANCIS AUDITORIUM.

Post-fatwa and post-Padma Lakshmi Rushdie probably has some interesting things to say.  

5:00pm

NBCC “Name that Author” returns to the book festival with 2008 champ Brigid Hughes (A Public Space), 2009 champ Martha Southgate (Third Girl from the Left), critics Eric Banks, Steve Kellman, and David Haglund. John Reed (Tales of Woe), emcee. NBCC president Jane Ciabattari, referee/quizmaster.
ST FRANCIS MARONEY SCREENING ROOM

How fun!

 

Faulkner Speaks!

From National Public Radio "In the late 1950s, English students at the University of Virginia got the opportunity that most American literature scholars would kill for — to speak with William Faulkner."

Read the whole story here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128513514

Want to learn more about William Faulkner?

Check out Hemingway and Faulkner in Their Time

John Steinbeck Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner are generally recognized as the most influential American novelists of the 20th century. Their careers paralleled one another in significant ways – two of their fledgling poems coincidentally appeared in the same avant-garde little magazine; they died a year apart, almost to the day; each won the Nobel Prize. It is as much biography as critique, a short, happy reference work that sometimes tells more about the commentators than their subjects. Among the writers on the writers, there is Sherwood Anderson, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Conrad Aiken, W. H. Auden, John Dos Passos, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and many others. This book is not only a valuable addition to literary scholarship, it is also a unique re-creation of an era in American culture.

Find out more on our website here.