1 -3 May 2021 A weekend of talks, workshops and performances celebrating The London Library as a place of community, discovery & refuge - The ...
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THE
1 -3 May 2021
A weekend of talks,
workshops and
performances celebrating
The London Library as
a place of community,
discovery & refuge.
Gender Swapped Fairy Rebecca West: A
Tales Workshop Celebration
Saturday 1 May, 12pm Saturday 1 May, 6pm
To create their new book, Gender ‘Hard as nails… a cross between a
Swapped Fairy Tales, graphic novelist charwoman and a gipsy, but as tenacious
Karrie Fransman and digital wizard as a terrier, with flashing eyes… immense A Room of One’s Own
Jonathan Plackett used the classic
Sarah Waters: In vitality… suspicion of intellectuals, and
Lang’s Fairy Books as their source Conversation great intelligence…’ (performance)
material, gender swapping the stories Saturday 1 May, 2pm Saturday 1 May, 8pm
using a computer algorithm. By turning So said Virginia Woolf of Rebecca West,
‘he’ to ‘she’ and ‘mother’ to ‘father’, the Sarah Waters burst onto the literary prolific author, journalist, literary critic, To mark the 80th anniversary of
result illuminates the gender binaries scene with her stunning first novel travel writer and one of the foremost Virginia Woolf’s death, we celebrate
inherent in our language, the roles we Tipping the Velvet in 1998. Speaking public intellectuals of the twentieth one of the most important works of
adopt and the stories we’ve been telling to Hallie Rubenhold, author of The century. her life. Filmed in the atmospheric
our children for generations. Five and other hidden histories of spaces of The London Library, where
women’s lives, Waters will discuss West was a founding member of English Woolf, a long-standing member, would
Join the authors for a Gender Swapped her extraordinary body of work, the PEN and Vice President of The London once have browsed the book stacks,
Stories workshop and a deep dive into research which goes into each book, Library. As both organisations celebrate Charlotte Westernra directs Linda
The London Library collection. Discover the discoveries she has made in The our anniversaries, 100 years and 180 Marshall-Griffiths’ dramatic adaptation
the secrets behind the Lang’s Fairy London Library and what inspires and years respectively, we, in turn, celebrate of this ground-breaking work, which
Books (1889 and 1913) and the other motivates her to tell the stories she so one of the most energetic, fearless still resonates today.
wife-and-husband team who created beautifully tells. and fierce figures in our organisations’
them. Learn how Plackett created the histories.
gender-swapping algorithm, have a go
at finding texts to gender swap yourself In partnership with English PEN. The London Library
and try your hand at drawing your own Buried Treasure Emerging Writers
swapped literary characters. Programme Showcase
Saturday 1 May, 4pm
Sunday 2 May, 12pm
Hannah Chukwu, editor of Bernardine
Evaristo’s Black Britain: Writing Back John O’Farrell hosts a showcase of
series and Lennie Goodings, Chair exceptional talent from the inaugural
of Virago Books, speak to writer and cohort of our Emerging Writers
broadcaster Bidisha about the political Programme with readings from From
nature of publishing, the importance the Silence of the Stacks, New Voices
of bringing forgotten works to new Rise, an anthology of their work.
generations and why institutions such Featuring poet Helen Bowell, novelists
as The London Library are essential as Amber Medland and L M Dillsworth,
treasure troves full of literary wonders short story writer Deborah Torr and
waiting to be discovered. playwright Carmina Bernhardt.
Salman Rushdie: In 5x15: Science and
Conversation Miscellaneous
Sunday 2 May, 2pm Sunday 2 May, 8pm
Salman Rushdie joins English PEN The London Library’s Science and
and The London Library to mark our Miscellaneous section has its own
anniversaries and celebrate 40 years unique classification system, designed
since the publication of his trailblazing, for book explorers to make unexpected
bestselling, two-time Best of Booker-
Zweig in London discoveries. Disparate subjects jostle
winning novel, Midnight’s Children. Sunday 2 May, 4pm up against each other in wonderfully Friendships & Rivalries
evocative juxtapositions – Death, with Simon Schama
He’ll discuss the inspiration and Joining Philippe Sands, writer, human Dentistry and Devil &c or Post Office,
rights lawyer and Zweig fan, are George Monday 3 May, 4pm
genesis of the magical realist classic, Poultry, Predictions, for example. To
an allegorical tale about Indian Prochnik, author of The Impossible Exile, celebrate the Library’s wild heart, we
a biography of Zweig, and Daria Santini, Historian Simon Schama discusses
Independence, which sparked a have teamed up with 5x15 to bring
author of The Exiles. some of the most famous and
revolution in post-colonial literature. five acclaimed speakers, each sharing
fascinating friendships and rivalries
He’ll speak about his remarkable body their Science & Miscellaneous-inspired
Woven through with readings of to have been forged amongst writers
of work since, about literature, freedom stories. Featuring historian Suzannah
some of the letters Zweig wrote from throughout history: from Boccaccio
of expression and the role The London Lipscomb, novelist and screenwriter
London, they discuss his life and work, and Petrarch to Montaigne and La
Library and English PEN have played in David Nicholls, novelist Naomi Ishiguro
his five years of physical and cultural Boétie and plenty others since.
his writing life. and writer and engineer Yassmin Abdel-
displacement in the city and the Magied.
In partnership with English PEN. particular condition of what it means to
be a writer in exile. In partnership with 5x15.
After Vienna: Edmund de Global Conversations:
Waal and Tom Stoppard Myth and Discovery
Monday 3 May, 2pm
in conversation
Sunday 2 May, 6pm We bring Monique Roffey (UK) and
C Pam Zhang (USA) together across
Coming together in conversation for two continents to discuss the common
this very special event, Tom Stoppard themes in their recent novels: myth,
and Edmund de Waal discuss some of discovery and the lure/lore of the
the themes and concerns they share frontier.
in their work, including diaspora,
displacement, art and libraries and In partnership with Brighton Festival
the cultural particularity of pre-War as part of their Global Conversations
Vienna. series.
Too Young, Too Loud,
Too Different: Poetry
party with Malika’s Poetry
Kitchen
Monday 3 May, 8pm
In the early years of the new millennium,
poets Malika Booker and Roger
Robinson saw the need for a space for
writers outside of the establishment to
Theatre for Dreamers grow, improve, discuss and learn.
Monday 3 May, 6pm
One Friday night, Malika offered her
Brixton kitchen table as a meeting place.
1960. The world is dancing on the edge
And Malika’s Poetry Kitchen was born.
of revolution, and nowhere more so
than on the Greek island of Hydra.
Celebrating 20 years of MPK, and their
forthcoming anthology Too Young, Too
Alongside readings and music,
Loud, Too Different, we host a party of
acclaimed novelist Polly Samson
poetry featuring MPK members past
speaks to novelist and journalist
and present including Inua Ellams,
Edward Docx about her spellbinding
Malika Booker, Kayo Chingonyi, Zakia
new novel, utopian dreams, the wars
Carpenter-Hall, Arji Manuelpillai,
waged between men and women on
Charlotte Ansell and hosted by poet and
the battlegrounds of genius and the
MPK Director Jill Abram.
explosive, and sometimes implosive,
potential of artistic communities.
In partnership with Malika’s Poetry
Kitchen.
Tickets from £5, all
events are taking
place online.
Find out more at
londonlibrarylitfest.co.uk
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