Category Archives: Reflections

Writing in Lockdown

Posted on 10th July 2020 by Sally O'Reilly

Jo Barnden, AL on A215 and A363 For those first, intense weeks of lockdown, I seemed to be out of step with the rest of the world. Everyone was telling Twitter how much time they had to walk through nature … Continue reading →

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Ed Hogan interview

Posted on 1st July 2020 by Sally O'Reilly

Ed Hogan is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Open University. His first novel, Blackmoor, won the Desmond Elliott Prize, and was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Other novels include The Hunger Trace, and Daylight Saving, … Continue reading →

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Escaping Jordan

Posted on 8th April 2020 by Sally O'Reilly

Dennis Walder, Emeritus Professor in English Last week my wife and I were in an SUV heading down the King’s Highway through the Jordan desert.  We had glimpsed the Promised Land, and were on our way to Petra, forty-five kilometres … Continue reading →

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A little literary tourism: in search of Hilary Mantel

Posted on 4th March 2020 by Sally O'Reilly

Shafquat Towheed, Senior Lecturer in English Hilary Mantel has been lauded for reviving the fortunes of the historical novel in English, for being the first woman writer to have won the Booker Prize twice (2009, 2012), and for selling over … Continue reading →

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George Eliot’s Piano

Posted on 21st November 2019 by Sally O'Reilly

Dr Delia da Sousa Correa, Senior Lecturer in English 22nd November 2019 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of novelist George Eliot, born Mary Ann Evans. Appropriately 22nd November is St Cecilia’s day, in honour of the patron saint … Continue reading →

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Creative Writing Workshops on Word/Image Relationships

Posted on 8th November 2019 by Sally O'Reilly

Patrick Wright, PhD Creative Writing Student Over the last year or so, I have been facilitating a series of creative writing workshops on the theme of responding to images or objects. I was interested in exploring some outreach opportunities, especially … Continue reading →

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Thoughts on retreat, writing and solitude as the nights draw in

Posted on 21st October 2019 by Sally O'Reilly

Joanne Reardon, Lecturer, Creative Writing The popularity of writing retreats has grown and grown over the past few years: retreats masquerading as holidays where not much writing is done, teaching retreats where you get a writing tutor thrown in, retreats … Continue reading →

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‘Let Me Tell You A Story’: Reflections on the EastSide Arts Festival, Belfast

Posted on 5th September 2019 by Sally O'Reilly

Patricia Ferguson, PhD student, English Literature ‘Let me tell you a story’ was the principal theme of this year’s EastSide Arts festival. These are my reflections on four events which seem to me to resonate profoundly with the present state … Continue reading →

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Ten days with Edith Wharton: impressions of an archival visit

Posted on 31st July 2019 by Sally O'Reilly

By Isabelle Parsons, PhD student, English Literature (1) It’s a Monday morning in June and I’m standing in front of the imposing granite and marble cube that is the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. I’ve spent … Continue reading →

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‘An Agreement Born of Impossible Conversations’: Imagine! Festival of Ideas and Politics, Belfast, 25-31 March 2019

Posted on 15th April 2019 by Sally O'Reilly

  Patricia Ferguson, PhD student, English Literature I have taken as my title this arresting phrase with which the poet Matt Kirkham, writing in ‘The Belfast Agreement: Twentieth Anniversary Issue’ of Irish Pages, sums up the Good Friday Agreement, an … Continue reading →

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