- KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- ARCHIVE LED TEACHING
- EVENTS
- PUBLICATIONS & BROADCASTS
- INTERNSHIPS
- ENQUIRIES – TOPICS AND THEMES
- STATISTICS: VISITS AND ENQUIRIES
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Where Do Stories Comes From? Part of the School of Literature and Drama’s ground-breaking ’Future and Form’ project, funded by the Arts Council to mark 50 years of UEA’s world renowned MA in Creative Writing programme, launched at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, 21-31 May. It is one of six immersive digital literary works asking what literature will look like in another 50 years.
Justine Mann, Archivist of The British Archive for Contemporary Writing (BACW) worked with the author Tash Aw and Guildhall Live Events during 2020/21 to launch a brand new interactive and immersive experience inviting the public to make the shift from reader to writer. In 10-15 minutes, participants are provided with creative writing prompts and visual stimuli, manipulated by machine learning, to conjure characters and settings. The participant is encouraged to try writing for themselves. The intention is to shatter the myth that writing is reserved only for the privileged few.
Festival goers were also given the opportunity to be part of an extended experience in the form of a 60 minute workshop led by UEA creative writing students and graduates. The workshops will also be provided to Norfolk Library and Information Service during summer 2021.
Future and Form
Where do Stories Come From?
Video of Tash Aw describing the project
ARCHIVE LED TEACHING
MA Cultural Heritage Module, 6 & 7 May
Justine Mann gave a lecture on designing and implementing a digital exhibition, drawing on current theoretical debates and the case study of UEA’s Heritage Lottery Funded ‘Suffragette Stories’ project undertaken in 2018. This was followed by a practical workshop session on creating digital exhibitions using the exhibition software, Omeka. Students uploaded digital exhibits and added metadata and tags [15 students].
MA Publishing, 10 May (2 groups)
Students were introduced to the relationship between publishing and literary archives. This included using archive material from the Lee Child, Charles Pick, Nadine Gordimer and Doris Lessing Archives to illustrate the workings of the publishing industry through correspondence and working drafts. The session examined the ways in which literary agents and publishers work editorially with writers across their career and how publishers work with archives on posthumous publications [24 students].
‘Using Digital Archives’ Training for PGRs, Saturday 15 May
Justine Mann co-delivered a session on creating digital archives with Academic Engagement Librarian, Grant Young, as part of a day long training course on Finding and Using Digital Archives from UEA’s Humanities Graduate School [12 students].
EVENTS
Archives Hub webinar on the administrative interface (CIIM), 13 April
The CIIM allows contributors to view the descriptions they have on the Hub, to un-publish and re-publish and to upload new descriptions that are Hub valid Encoded Archival Descriptions. Archives Hub blog on the CIIM. Attended by BG.
Novice to Know-How: Providing Access to Preserved Digital Content – Course Launch, 10 May
The National Archives (UK) and the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) held this session to provide an update on ‘Plugged in, Powered up’ (digital capacity building strategy), explore what archivists know about digital access and introduce the new course 'Providing access to preserved digital content'. Attended by BG.
EARC Archives and Special Collections Group, 17 May
Justine Mann attended a meeting of the Consortium which discussed future strategies and the potential for collaboration across the EARC institutions.
Go Global – screenings of UEA Live, 18, 20, 21 May
UEA Live re-screenings were provided as part of the Student Union’s Go Global Week.
Global Voices: Tsitsi Dangarembga – From the UEA Live Archive
Global Voices: Author Event – Jesmyn Ward – From the UEA Live Archive
Global voices: Tash Aw - Author Event – From the UEA Live Archive
PUBLICATIONS & BROADCASTS
Doris Lessing at 100: The Writer’s Quest
A special issue of the journal, Critical Quarterly, edited by UEA academics and Doris Lessing 100 Co-Curators, Matthew Taunton and Nonia Williams was published in April and is available as open access. The centenary of Doris Lessing’s birth in 2019 provided an opportunity to reassess the standing and legacy of a great writer. The celebrations held at the University of East Anglia included an international conference (some papers from which are included in the journal issue), a major exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre and several public events. UEA was a natural home for the celebrations because of Lessing’s connections with the university and her donation of her diaries and personal papers, now held in the British Archive for Contemporary Writing.
Link to the journal
More about Lessing 100
Re-screening of ‘Blitz: The Bombs that Changed Britain’ BBC Four, 19 May
An incredibly moving and insightful documentary filmed at UEA Archives and Hull History Centre (2017) telling the story of a major psychological study of the effects of WW2 bombing on UK citizens, and how it informed the UK’s civilian bombing campaign in Germany. Zuckerman Archive. Blog telling more about the school essays.
INTERNSHIPS
Appointment of internships for ‘Future and Form’ Creative Writing Workshops
Interviews took place on 11 May for three paid internships. These placements provided three PGT students with the opportunity to be actively involved in the delivery of online creative writing workshops as part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, 21-31 May.
ENQUIRIES – TOPICS AND THEMES
BACW COLLECTIONS
AP WATT ARCHIVE works of Timothy Mo (author) TASH AW manuscripts (for Contemporary Fiction module) LEE CHILD │ MALCOLM BRADBURY the creation of the MA Creative Writing Programme ROGER DEAKIN Deakin’s house and moat (for US journal article) MARK COCKER Richard Meinertzhagen (ornithologist associated with fraud) ROGER DEAKIN & MARK COCKER nature writing & eco-criticism (for MA dissertation) WG SEBALD recorded discussions (for MA dissertation)
OTHER COLLECTIONS
HILL PAPERS manorial records of Blyford Estate HOLLOWAY COLLECTION film and television printed ephemera (for PhD research) KENNEY PAPERS local (Norwich) suffragettes PRITCHARD PAPERS Isobar menus UEA COLLECTION Ziggurats; Peter Eden (historian/surveyor) ZUCKERMAN ACHIVE WWII air attacks on French and Belgian railways; nerve agents and disarmament; anti-personnel bombs; school children and the blitz; Operation Buffalo and atomic weapons testing.
STATISTICS: VISITS & ENQUIRIES
There were 86 enquiries and visits, of which 80 were remote.
