Even great writers start from small beginnings. Eleanor Scorah reports on an encounter with a minuscule book, during Durham's Literary Juvenilia conference, which enticingly hints at the author who we would subsequently know and cherish as Charlotte Brontë. This is kindly cross-posted from Eleanor's blog, Object. This week I attended a talk called ‘The Brontë juvenilia, editing,... Continue Reading →
Universal and Eternal: Review of Discovering Dante at Durham Book Festival
Dante may have lived 700 years ago, but the epic poem he wrote, The Divine Comedy, lives on through later writers. Three speakers with expertise ranging from Romantic poetry to world literature to modern writing were able to demonstrate the range of Dante's influence at a Durham Book Festival talk. Lucia Scigliano-Suarez reviews. In his fictional journey... Continue Reading →
Bringing Out What Is Good: Review of Outsiders at Durham Book Festival
Mary Shelley, Emily Brontë, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, and Olive Schreiner. These five female authors defied social expectations and, according to Lyndall Gordon in her new book Outsiders, they "changed the world". Lyndall Gordon joined Professor Claire Harman at Durham Book Festival to discuss her work. Lucia Scigliano-Suarez reviews. Relying on her own upbringing in... Continue Reading →
A Living Library: Review of Discovering Dante, at Durham Book Festival
Dante's Divine Comedy tracks his journey from hell to heaven - but Dante has now arrived at a new destination in Durham, partly through a forthcoming exhibition at Palace Green Library, and also through a Durham Book Festival event on Discovering Dante, which explored the poet’s enduring influence on today’s art, literature, and culture around the world. Aalia... Continue Reading →
Rich Seams: Review of the Northern Poetry Gala at Durham Book Festival
Defining the North is an always-provocative challenge, but poetry - with its attention to language and voice - provides a fine form through which to explore and celebrate the region's identity. This was one idea behind the Northern Poetry Gala at Durham Book Festival, which brought together several of the North's newest and exciting writers.... Continue Reading →