As part of its mission, the Centre supports a regular programme of readings by writers, research seminars, conferences and public events both on and off campus.
The CMCW is pleased to support the annual F.T. Prince Lecture, which was established in honour of the poet and scholar F.T. Prince, who was one of Southampton’s first English professors. Invited speakers explore new directions in literary studies, drawing on the English department’s wide range of intellectual interests.
Writers in Conversation is a reading series, created in association with John Hansard Gallery, which features some of today’s best fiction writers, poets, non-fiction writers and playwrights. Each semester, we invite writers read from their work and talk about their writing – how characters take shape, where ideas come from. Led by our own creative writing lecturers, the event takes place in John Hansard Gallery, helping to create an evening that is relaxed, engaging, intelligent and informal. Each semester, we also feature a writer from our Creative Writing team, allowing students as well as members of the Southampton community to hear our lecturers talk about their own work. Video-recordings of previous sessions are available here. Read more on the Writers in Conversation blog
Entropics is an experimental writing series, dedicated to introducing audiences to innovative and radical literatures of the now. Typically, the invited writer gives two performances over the course of the night, which also includes an open public discussion. Everyone is very welcome to attend, and to contribute to a lively conversation with the guest writer. These performances take place off-campus, in Southampton city centre. Thanks to the generosity of the Education Enhancement Fund and the support of the Department of English, all events are free. Poets invited since 2017 have included Verity Spott, Lila Matsumoto, Sophie Robinson, Samuel Solomon, Vahni Capildeo, Maggie O’Sullivan, Nat Raha, Linus Slug, Holly Pester, Iain Morrison, Samantha Walton, Redell Olsen, Jay Bernard, Nisha Ramayya, Peter Manson, Trevor Joyce and Sophie Seita. You can read interviews with all of these poets on the Entropics blog
The Centre for Modern and Contemporary Writing runs an annual Research Study Day with critical papers and creative readings by staff and student members. Recent themes have included ‘Relation’ (2020), ‘Friction’ (2019), ‘Immediacy’ (2018), ‘Creativity and Serendipity’ (2017), ‘Nature/Nurture’ (2015), ‘Gifts and Debts’ (2014) and ‘A Return to History’ (2013).