Life Stories: At a time when some writers are turning away from fiction towards memoir, while others are seeking to reinvent the novel form for a post-truth era, this series of seminars will look at the burgeoning area of life-writing and engage with how life stories, whether of self or other, are constructed, to what effect and for what purpose. It will consider the role of fiction in rendering the story of a life and reflect on what it means (for self and other) to write from life.

Through presentations by academics, critics, and writers, the Spring 2019 seminar series convened by Fiona Doloughan and Heather Richardson on behalf of the Contemporary Cultures of Writing Research Group at the Open University will seek to engage with issues of representation and modes of narration, auto/biographical production and reception, and the impact of new technologies on presentation of self and other.

The seminar series are free and open to all.

Dates: 15th January – 11th February – 12th March 2019
Time: All seminars take place from 6.00-8.00 pm

Seminar 1: Writing the self
Tuesday 15th January 2019, Senate House, University of London

This session will be concerned with writing about and constructing a sense of self. Speakers: Novelist and film-maker Xiaolu Guo and Fiona Doloughan, Senior Lecturer in English (Literature and Creative Writing) at the Open University 

Seminar 2: The lives of others: research and writing
Monday 11th February 2019, Room 2BC, FutureLearn, 1-11 Hawley Cres, Camden Town, London NW1 8NP (please note date and venue change)

This session will look at what it means to research and write about the lives of others. Speakers: Fiona Sampson, Professor of Poetry at the University of Roehampton and Dean de la Motte, Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Salve Regina University, Newport, Rhode Island. 

Seminar 3: Multimodal life stories
Tuesday 12th March 12th 2019, Room 2BC, FutureLearn, 1-11 Hawley Cres, Camden Town, London NW1 8NP (please note venue change)

New and old technologies afford opportunities for inscribing life stories in different media. 

Katherine Collins, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Oxford's Department of Education from 2019, will read from and discuss a new piece provisionally entitled ‘I remember once I was a fine art student’, while Heather Richardson, Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Open University, will discuss her text and textile project, A dress for Kathleen, which has involved the creation of a garment-as-text to explore family and social history.

Further information about the series is available here