Royal Society of Literature

Annual General Meeting - Thursday 28 June 2012

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 17:12:29 Europe/Berlin

Please keep this date in your diary. Invitations will be sent out in May. The
AGM will be held in the Great Hall at Kings College London. After the Chair and Treasurer have reported on the RSLs year, new Fellows will be formally introduced to the Society, and invited to sign into the roll book using either Dickenss quill or Byrons pen. The President, Colin Thubron, will then make a speech, before inviting Fellows and Members to stay on for a drinks reception.

Dicing with darkness - Hilary Mantel & James Runcie - Monday 25 June 2012

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:29:33 Europe/Berlin

The TLS Meeting

Standing in the garden at the age of seven, Hilary Mantel had an intense encounter with evil. It was, she says, at the very border of sensory experience. I could walk to where it was, could say how high it was and describe the speed at which it moved. But how I got this information, through which sense, I do not know. Her novels have repeatedly explored the unspeakable child abduction in Africa, the tensions between Islam and the liberal West, the hideous psychic damage lurking beneath the jolly exterior of a professional medium. Now, in Bring Up the Bodies, sequel to Man Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall, she charts the destruction of Anne Boleyn. Mantel talks to novelist James Runcie about simultaneously inhabiting the sixteenth century and the twenty-first; the lure of the inexplicable; the impact of severe illness; and the solace of very hard work.

Venue: Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House.

Language under stress: poetry and faith - Rowan Williams & Fiona Sampson - Wednesday 20 June 2012

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:25:28 Europe/Berlin

Born in Wales and educated at both Cambridge and Oxford, Rowan Williams has been Archbishop of Canterbury since 2002 the first Welshman to hold the post. He is internationally acknowledged as an outstanding teacher and scholar, and has written extensively on theological, philosophical, literary, ethical and social issues. He is also a poet and a translator of poetry. With award-winning poet Fiona Sampson, the Archbishop discusses poetic and religious language, both of which operate outside the usual conventions of description or analysis. Together, they consider the different kind of pressure at work in these two modes.

We are grateful to ALCS for sponsoring this event.

Venue: London School of Economics and Political Science, The Old Theatre, Old Building, Houghton Street, WC2A 2AE.

We would ask Fellows and Members who wish to book seats for this event to do so by Friday 27 April. After this, remaining seats will be put on sale to the public at £10.

The time around scars - Michael Ondaatje in conversation with Catherine Lockerbie - Monday 18 June 2012

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:12:25 Europe/Berlin

Preoccupied with memory and place, both physical and emotional, Michael Ondaatje was recently described by the Guardian as 'one of the most innovative and liberating writers of our time'. His reach is as international as his early life. Born in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1943, he was educated in England, before moving to Canada, where he now lives. He has said that 'every book has to find a new form', and his refusal to bow to convention has produced a richly varied oeuvre, taking in poetry, prose and drama, translated into more than forty languages. His novels include The English Patient, a study of identity and desire that won the Booker Prize, and, most recently, The Cat's Table, which blends real and imagined lives to tell a story at once autobiographical and fictional. In a conversation interwoven with readings, he talks to Catherine Lockerbie, former director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival about his life and work.

Venue: Canada House, Trafalgar Square, SW1Y 5BJ

MASTERCLASS: Crossover fiction - David Almond - Saturday 26 May 2012

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:24:30 Europe/Berlin

This is the second class in the RSL/Booker Masterclass series.

David Almond is a childrens writer and playwright who has written several critically-acclaimed novels. His first novel, Skellig (1998), won the Whitbread Children's Book Award and the Carnegie Medal. His second, Kits Wilderness (1999), won the Smarties Award Silver Medal, was Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal, and shortlisted for the Guardian Award. The Fire-Eaters (2003) won the Whitbread, the Smarties Gold Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. His latest children's novel is My Name is Mina (2010), a prequel to Skellig. In 2011 his first adult novel was published - The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean. His work is translated into more than 20 languages.

Classes are for a maximum of fourteen people and six places in each class will be reserved for Fellows and Members of the RSL. Classes cost £30.

Booking Details: Applicants should email their names to Rachel Page, rachel@rslit.org / 020 7845 4677, before the closing date, after which selection of places will be made by ballot. The closing date for applications is Friday 2 March at 6pm.

The Bangladeshi novel - Philip Hensher & Tahmima Anam - Monday 21 May 2012

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:40:55 Europe/Berlin

The Tagore Memorial Meeting

How does a novelist set about exploring a culture that is not his own? Or writing about her own culture from a different country? And what are the advantages and challenges of exploring history through a domestic prism? In Scenes from Early Life, published in April, prizewinning novelist Philip Hensher combines biography, memoir, fiction and history to tell the story of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War through the eyes of his partner, Zaved. Both Tahmima Anams novels, A Golden Age (2007, winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book) and its sequel, The Good Muslim, explore the same war, which took place five years before her birth. In a conversation chaired by travel writer Sara Wheeler, who has visited and written about Bangladesh, they discuss their relationships with this young country, and ask what makes the Bangladeshi novel distinct.

We are grateful to the Robert Gavron Charitable Trust for sponsoring this event.

Venue: Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House.

Society news

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:58:05 Europe/Berlin

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