KEY HIGHLIGHTS
We are delighted to announce that the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded UEA £207,600 to support the development of a Centre for Contemporary Poetry in the Archive, amplifying the voices of poets from underrepresented groups in British and Irish literature.
The Centre will be based within the British Archive for Contemporary Writing (BACW) and will promote and preserve the archives of contemporary poets of colour, LGBTQ+ poets and writers from other historically underrepresented backgrounds and practices. The pioneering project, entitled ‘New Ways of Collecting, Collaborating and Curating: Towards a Centre for Contemporary Poetry in the Archive’, is a joint initiative between UEA, the National Centre for Writing and Norfolk County Council Library and Information Service. Press release.
We were honoured to welcome UEA’s inaugural International Chair for Creative Writing, Tsitsi Dangarembga, to the Doris Lessing Archive to share correspondence revealing Lessing's huge admiration for Dangarembga's debut 'Nervous Conditions' & her campaign for its wide publication & translation. 2 December 2021.
On 15 December we shared 'Lorna Sage & Bad Blood: An Exhibition' - a digital exhibition curated by Lorna's daughter Sharon Tolaini-Sage. It examines Lorna's life & contextualises her award winning and highly acclaimed memoir with images & curiosities. Students of Sage were invited to submit their memories: https://lornasagearchives.omeka.net In Spring 2022, a new generation of readers will be invited to read the text and respond to the exhibition with their own interpretation and curation through the British Archive for Contemporary’s Unboxed programme.
Future and Form Writing Prize awarded. As part of UEA’s Arts Council funded project, Future and Form, we announced literary prizes awarded to outstanding submissions for the ‘Where do Stories Come From?’ immersive literary work, one of six to emerge from the project. The quality and volume of submissions resulted in the award of two prizes: The Future and Form Young Writers’ Prize for entrants under 18 and the Future and Form Writing Prize. Winners and runners were announced on 10 December 2021, with submissions from Suffolk One Sixth Form, Thorpe St Andrew Academy and Sprowston High School amongst the winners in the Young Writers’ category. https://futureandform.net/news/announcing-the-future-and-form-writing-prize-2021/
ARCHIVE LED TEACHING
Creative Writing Session – Suffolk One (UEA Humanities and Experience Day), 16 November
29 sixth form students participated in a creative writing workshop with Justine Mann and Future and Form graduate intern, Claire Reiderman, using the immersive creative writing experience, ‘Where do Stories Come From’, to spark inspiration and story development.
MA in Literary Translation students from the School of Literature, Drama and Creative were introduced to our Literary Translation Collections, within the British Archive for Contemporary Writing. Drawing on the David Bellos’ material, the seminar group examined David Bellos’ creative process during the translation of Georges Perec’s ‘W Ou Le Souveneir D’enfance’ translated as ‘W or The Memory of Childhood’. It included discussion surrounding his response to editorial suggestions. 1 December, 12 students.
‘The Legacy of a Militant’. Film, Television and Media undergraduate students, led by Ellie Jones, filmed our suffragette archives and interviewed Justine Mann about the legacy of Annie Kenney, as part of a submission for the documentary module.
PUBLICATIONS
Sisters and Sisterhood: The Kenney Family, Class, and Suffrage, 1890-1965. Dr Lyndsey Jenkins (UEA alumna). Draws heavily on the archives of Annie and Jessie Kenney (Kenney Papers) held at UEA and her doctoral thesis. Oxford University Press, 2021.
‘The Crafting of Systems Knowledge at the international Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) (1872-1982)’. Doctoral thesis of Michael Hutter. University of Lausanne, 2021. (Credit: Zuckerman Archive).
STUDENT PLACEMENTS
On 15th December we were delighted to welcome Rufus Talks, who has been appointed via the UEA Graduate Internship Scheme to work as a Cataloguing Assistant. Rufus completed an MA in creative writing at UEA in 2020, focusing on poetry. He is cataloguing the archive of poet and UEA graduate, Sarah Maguire.
ENQUIRIES - TOPICS AND THEMES
BACW COLLECTIONS
DORIS LESSING correspondence with Naomi Mitchison
OTHER COLLECTIONS
KENNEY PAPERS Gertrude Simmons aka Grace Alexander PRITCHARD PAPERS Penguin Donkey (bookcase); Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, László Moholy-Nagy; Lella Secor Florence (birth control advocate) UEA COLLECTION 1971 campus sit-ins; Ernst Gordon; ‘Doing Different in a Cold Climate’ a speech by Frank Thistlethwaite ZUCKERMAN ARCHIVE photo of Solly Zuckerman for a French television programme; WWII bombing of Hull.
STATISTICS - VISITS & ENQUIRIES
Special Collections: 13 (1 remote)
Archives: 74 (50 remote)
