News

Reading for wellbeing on board the Torrens
29th June 2020
Helen Chambers is an Honorary Associate in English at the OU. She explores the role that reading played for those embarking on epic voyages to Australia in the late nineteenth century, namely those who travelled on the purpose-built passenger clipper the Torrens
Books for Travel in a Time of Crisis: the Word Deployed by Ward and Solnit
8th June 2020
In a series by the OU and Institute of English Studies, Professor Sara Haslam highlights the literature of Mary Ward and Rebecca Solnit, two authors who 'simultaneously appreciate the basic connectedness between members of this human race'
Michael Rodgers' Monograph Awarded The Jane Grayson Prize
22nd November 2019
Michael Rodgers' (Honorary Associate and Associate Lecturer in English, FASS) monograph, Nabokov and Nietzsche: Problems and Perspectives, has been awarded The Jane Grayson Prize by the International Vladimir Nabokov Society for a first book of 2018 that makes a significant contribution to Nabokov studies. The prize comes with a $1500 award.
New collection co-edited by Honorary Research Fellow
18th October 2019
Dr Helen Chambers, an Honorary Research Fellow and former PhD student in the Department of English & Creative writing has collaborated on a new collection of stories by Guy de Maupassant: Mademoiselle Perle and Other Stories (Riverrun Editions, 2020).
Contemporary Cultures of Writing 2019 Spring Seminars Announced
11th January 2019
Through presentations by academics, critics, and writers, the spring 2019 seminar series organised by the Contemporary Cultures of Writing Research Group at The Open University will seek to engage with issues of representation and modes of narration, auto/biographical production and reception, and the impact of new technologies on presentation of self and other.
Michael Rodgers' new book on Nabokov and Nietzsche
10th July 2018
Dr Michael Rodgers, Associate Lecturer and Research Associate in English, has published his first monograph, Nabokov and Nietzsche: Problems and Perspectives, with Bloomsbury. In a post for the Bloomsbury Literary Studies blog, Michael describes how he got into Nabokov's writing and where it has taken him.
English Academic Sara Haslam’s Commentary Piece Published in the Times Literary Supplement (TLS)
12th June 2018
Dr Sara Haslam’s commentary piece, ‘No More Parades End: Ford Madox Ford’s last library and what it tells us about the “Tietjens saga”’, was published in the Times Literary Supplement (TLS) on 8 June.
Toby Manning's New Book and an Interview
9th February 2018
Toby Manning completed his PhD from the English and Creative Writing Department, The Open University, in 2015. A book based on his PhD research has been published in January 2018, John le Carré and the Cold War, by Bloomsbury publishers. In an interview on the Spy Write forum, Toby discusses this and other publications by him on le Carré's work.
History of Books and Reading Research Conference CFP
7th February 2018
On 14 September, the History of Books and Reading (HOBAR) research collaboration at The Open University will hold a 1 day conference exploring the legacy of bibliotherapy from WW1 to the present. Led by three members of The Open University’s Department of English & Creative Writing, Siobhan Campbell, Sara Haslam, and Edmund King, this event will contribute to and shape understanding of the therapeutic importance of books across disciplines and help to generate further focused research in the Humanities and beyond. If you are interested in offering a paper, please send a proposals of 300 words (for a 20-minute paper) by Friday, 4 May 2018 to the conference organisers. We welcome proposals from PhD students, ECRs and established scholars working in the field.
Literature in Translation: Peirene Press in Conversation
25th September 2017
Fiona Doloughan, Senior Lecturer in English (Literature and Creative Writing) and author of English as a Literature in Translation (Bloomsbury, 2016) chaired a panel discussion on literature in translation, just one of many exciting events in the first Milton Keynes Lit Fest.