Nicholas Royle and Alex Lockwood

Climate Change, The Anthropocene and Language

What is our relationship to animals, language and writing in a time of mass extinction? Are animals talking to us? How is writing adapting to dramatic environmental change? You are invited by Transition Town Hastings and Energise Sussex Coast to an evening of readings and conversation with writers, Nicholas Royle and Alex Lockwood, plus optional vegan dinner. Richard Watson writes.

Image: Slide Share

Nicholas Royle has been Professor of English at the University of Sussex since 1999. He established the MA/PhD programme in Creative and Critical Writing in 2001 and is founding director of the Centre for Creative and Critical Thought. His first novel, Quilt, was published in 2010.

Nicholas Royle is also the author of An English Guide to Birdwatching. Dazzling in its linguistic playfulness and formal invention, An English Guide to Birdwatching explores the rich hinterland between fact and fiction. In its focus on birds, climate change, the banking crisis, social justice and human migration, it is intensely relevant to wider political concerns; in its mischievous wit and wordplay, it pushes the boundaries of what a novel might be.

Listen to a podcast recording of a conversation between Nicholas Royle and Adam Phillips about An English Guide to Birdwatching.

Alex Lockwood is a writer and senior lecturer in the Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Sunderland. Alex has a PhD in Creative Writing from Newcastle University, exploring self-identity, psychoanalysis and affect.

Alex Lockwood is the author of Pig in Thin Air, a searingly honest account of how he came to terms with his destructive habits and changed his relationship with his own body. In this book, Alex Lockwood, writer, educator, and activist works in the fields of literature, creative writing, media, and the environment, critically explores the relationship of the body to animal activism and the relationship of both to our changing climate.

Climate Change, the Anthropocene, & language Nicholas Royle & Alex Lockwood : Friday 24 November 2017
6:00pm – 10:00pm at The Beacon, 67-68 Saint Mary’s Terrace, Hastings, TN34 3LS.

The Beacon will be opening the kitchen and a vegan dinner will be available to purchase on the night after the readings and conversation. Book your ticket here. Make a donation on the night.

Related HOT article: Do you speak seagull?

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