The Book Group
The Book Group was launched in October 2020 as a way to bring English students and staff together online during the lockdown necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic. Each week, one person talks about and reads from a book they cherish or wish to share, for whatever reason. It might be because the book is a […]
Joe Orton, Edna Welthorpe and Creative Writing by Bryony Adshead
After signing up for an Open Day at the University of Leicester, I was intrigued to receive an email regarding the ‘Yours Faithfully, Edna Welthorpe (Mrs)’ creative writing competition, run by Dr Emma Parker and Chris Shepherd. The prompt, ‘If Joe Orton were alive today, who or what would be the object of his satire?’, […]
Melissa: Novel by Jonathan Taylor Now Published
Very happy to announce that my second novel, Melissa, has now been published by Salt Publishing. The novel is inspired by true events. Immediately following the tragic death of a young girl on a small street in Stoke-on-Trent, all her neighbours experience the same musical hallucination. This is the story of that strange hallucination, and […]
Two upcoming festivals
Over the next couple of weeks, I (Jonathan Taylor) am taking part in two Literary Festivals, both of which are open to the public. On Saturday 20 June, 12-1pm, I’ll be chairing a session at the Tablet Literary Festival in Birmingham. The panel, which is entitled “The Spirit and the Story,” will include well-known and award-winning novelist, […]
Beginnings; Queer Diasporas: a new research project
I started work on my new project, Queer Diasporas: Islam, Homosexuality and a Micropolitics of Dissent, based at the School of English, University of Leicester, in September 2014, after being awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship in May. The Leverhulme Trust offers different grants depending on the career stage of applicants. In the case of […]
Oh, Mr Sloane!
After studying Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane, and attending a workshop in the Joe Orton archive, held in the University’s David Wilson Library, third year English student Emma Ingleton was inspired to stage the play. Leicester University Theatre’s production of Entertaining Mr Sloane marks the play’s 50th anniversary. Speaking to Rupal Rajani on BBC Radio […]
Refugees tell their stories
Undergraduate students from the School of English are helping twelve refugees from across the world express their personal tales of struggle and hardship by helping them publish a book of their creative writing. The refugees have been regularly visiting our Centre for New Writing, where student volunteers will help to copy-edit the writing, as well […]
Leicester Cultural Quarter’s post-industrial past to be explored
Talented writers will be able to tell the untold stories of the post-industrial past of Leicester’s Cultural Quarter, thanks to a new project from the School of English. The Centre for New Writing, which is participating in an Arts and Humanities Research Council project called ‘Affective Digital Histories’, is commissioning writers to produce work which […]
Breaking the ice
Welcome to the School of English blog! My hope is that this becomes a way of communicating with each other, with our students, with the wider university and with the outside world about the whole range of activities that we are engaged in – research, teaching and the less glamorous stuff as well. With students […]
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