Creative Writing and English Literature: The State of the Disciplines

Speakers:

• Andrew Cowan, Director of Creative Writing, University of East Anglia
• Stephen May, Novelist, Author of Life! Death! Prizes!, shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award, 2012
• Angelica Michelis, Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Manchester Metropolitan University

The last decade has seen a proliferation of creative writing courses springing up throughout the UK, as independent degrees, components of English Literature degrees, or outside universities altogether.  But aren't English Literature and Creative Writing fundamentally different crafts?  What is literary creativity, and can it really be taught?  In an era of sweeping higher education reforms, should the strange bedfellows of English Literature and Creative Writing have a shared destiny?  If so, what is it?

Three experts from different fields discuss these issues in an interactive panel.  There will be a wine  reception to follow.

This is the final speaker event in the interdisciplinary research project Strange Bedfellows?: Creativity and Analysis in an Age of Austerity, funded by the Centre for Modern Studies and the Humanities Research Centre.