• KEY HIGHLIGHTS
  • PUBLICATIONS
  • ARCHIVE LED TEACHING
  • EVENTS
  • ENQUIRIES - TOPICS AND THEMES 
  • STATISTICS - VISITS AND ENQUIRIES

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

Appointment of new British Archive for Contemporary Writing Academic Director

We are pleased to welcome Dr Jeremy Noel-Tod who will take up his new role from 1 August 2021. We’ll be sorry to see Dr Jos Smith leave at the end of July 2021 but wish him well as he embarks on an AHRC Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship (early career) called 'Speculative Nature Writing: Feeling for the Future'. 

Future and Form - booking opens

Bookings for UEA’s Future and Form programme, celebrating 50 years of Creative Writing teaching at UEA, are now open via the Norfolk and Norwich Festival Website. The BACW is working with writer, Tash Aw, Norfolk Library and Information Service and Guildhall Live Events to produce the immersive experience ‘Where do Stories Come From?’ which invites participants to engage in the creative process to produce their own version of the story.
The UEA Press Release announcing the Future and Form programme 
Future and Form Website 

PUBLICATIONS

UEA School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing, Senior Lecturer and Co-Curator of our Doris Lessing 100 programme, Matthew Taunton, has published an article drawing on exhibits from the Doris Lessing 100 exhibition which took place in her centenary year, 2019-20, and which form part of Lessing’s Archive at UEA. Communism by the Letter: Doris Lessing & the Politics of Writing is published in 88.1 of English Literary History. 

ARCHIVE LED TEACHING

Adaptation and Scriptwriting (AMA UG), 4 March

As part of a three hour seminar, students discussed a range of archival material relating the to the creative process behind Charlie Higson’s adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde (2015) for ITV. Chase placement student, Emily Walker’s, enhanced curation of the Charlie Higson Archive presented a selection of material highlighting Higson’s creative decision making and the input of producers and directors. Students were invited to reflect on the process in relation to their own creative choices. 15 participants.

MA Contemporary Fiction module (LDC PGT), 25 March

The Malaysian writer, Tash Aw, deposited new material in the archive – together with notes on his creative process - relating to the writing of his latest novel We the Survivors. Students studying the novel enjoyed privileged access to the new material and engaged in textual analysis, examining the earlier drafts and comparing these changes with the published text. 15 attendees.

Poetics of Place (LDC PGT)

The collections of nature writers Roger Deakin, Richard Mabey and Mark Cocker are drawn on for this session. Students examined book proposals and synopses to help them reflect upon the structuring and planning of their own creative work. 20 attendees.

EVENTS

UEA Live Future and Form, 24 March

Future and Form is the flagship project celebrating 50 years of Creative Writing at UEA. In this special online event, Ayòbámi Adébáyò, Mona Arshi, Imogen Hermes Gowar and Mitch Johnson discussed their work on a series of virtual and physical installations and exhibitions with Executive Producer, Tim Wright and Chair, Henry Sutton. Tash Aw is working with us on one of the immersive exhibits ‘Where do Stories Come From?’ Online event, 188 views.

Archives Hub Workshop: Structure and Names in Archive Descriptions, 24 March

Online training webinar attended by BG. Archives Hub brings together descriptions of thousands of the UK’s archive collections. Our archive is one of around 330 contributing institutions. We looked at constructive ways to make our data more effective within the context of discoverability in the Web. To achieve this we use a range of archival standards. "Consistency is the friend of structure and machine processing."

ENQUIRIES – TOPICS AND THEMES 

BACW COLLECTIONS

ANDREW COWAN ARCHIVE oral histories on deindustrialization DORIS LESSING ARCHIVE The Good Terrorist LORNA SAGE ARCHIVE inventory of library books formerly belonging to Angela Carter MALCOLM BRADBURY ARCHIVE Bradbury’s teaching & creative writing workshops; screenplay of Brilliant Creatures TASH AW ARCHIVE manuscripts and editing process GENERAL LITERARY ARCHIVES self-censorship.

OTHER COLLECTIONS

UEA COLLECTION Student Union handbook of 1975/76 (the Archives would be interested in acquiring a copy if indeed one was issued); The Who (rock band) ZUCKERMAN ARCHIVE Bernstein Israeli Research Trust (BIRT) – a 1960s trust concerned with immigrants into Israel.

STATISTICS

There were 67 enquiries and visits, 55 were remote. In addition, the UEA Live ‘Future and Form’ event attracted over 154 online views.