This lecture recital will consider Ralph Vaughan Williams’ settings of 6 sonnets by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1904). The first of these to be composed was 'Silent Noon’; singer Julia Hollander and pianist Peter McMullin will focus on this song, its relationship to the rest of the cycle and especially the theme of silence. They analyse the ways Vaughan Williams’ music depicts silence, and consider the role of Rossetti as both painter and wordsmith: calling on both our listening and our (silent) visual powers.

Explore reading for escape as an instrumental practice, as well as reading and escape as a series of cultural or personal associations in this free online conference.

Rajat Chaudhuri, author, activist, NGO adviser; Liese Coulter, Visiting Researcher, Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds; Tanya Hawkes, author and environmentalist; James Miller, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and English Literature at Kingston University; Stephen Peake, Professor of Climate Change and Energy, The Open University; Harriet Tarlo, Professor of Ecopoetry and Poetics, Sheffield Hallam University.

Academics and practising writers engaged with climate change and creativity in different ways will talk about their research and/or creative practice, and take part in a discussion on ways to communicate climate crisis messages to wider audiences using storytelling and narrative.

This is 1st seminar of Contemporary Cultures of Writing Seminar Series Autumn 2021 - Climate change and creativity.

How do contemporary writers concerned about climate change begin to address this subject? Can imaginative writing create new ways of relating to the natural world? What is the role of metaphor, symbol or experimental strategies in this? And can writing help develop habits of attention which lead to fresh perceptions? This panel will ask whether climate writing itself is intrinsically an act of political dissent at the present moment.

The Open University is pleased once again to be collaborating with The Writers' and Artists'

The event is open to all and will include a welcome from the Executive Editors of the Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh, as well as from Alexander Waugh, Evelyn’s grandson and General Editor. There will be a Q&A with Sara, and the opportunity to hear from other editors working on the series. We hope to hear from Waugh himself too, in a recording of him reading from the book he said was his best – and was also the only one of his own works that he read aloud to his children.

After holding Sold Out events at the Open University offices of Edinburgh, London, Cardiff & Belfast, we are moving to an online incarnation of our successful pre-pandemic conference format. Which means business as usual, with a line-up of acclaimed authors, commissioning editors and literary agents on hand to offer tips on the creative process as well as invaluable insight into the world of publishing.

After holding Sold Out events at the Open University offices of Edinburgh, London, Cardiff & Belfast, we're heading back to Edinburgh for a day of writing and publishing advice from authors and industry professionals.

A panel dissussion at the OU Creative Writing conference 'The Personal as Political'. Speakers include Sarah Butler, Dr Siobhan Campbell and Dr Sally O’Reilly.

A one day conference organised by Creative Writing department of The Open University. The conference will consider the strategies writers use to engage with personal or public politics in today's restless world.