The award-winning American writer Gish Jen is the first guest for this Spring's Writers in Conversation reading series, which has moved online this academic year.

Jen will be talking about her eighth book, The Resisters, to Carole Burns, the university's head of creative writing, exploring how she intertwined concerns about climate change and racial and economic inequality in this vibrant novel in which a family of "resisters" works together to bring about change.

Jen is the author of four previous novels, a story collection, and two works of nonfiction. Her honors include the Lannan Literary Award for fiction and the Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She delivered the William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in American Studies at Harvard University. She teaches from time to time in China and otherwise lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from where she will be joining us for this special "Writers in Conversation."

The book is published this month in paperback in the UK.

This event will broadcast live on YouTube and Facebook.

Visit Gish Jen official website: https://www.gishjen.com/

Follow Jen on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/GishJen

The award-winning writer Margot Livesey is one of our guests at this Spring\'s Writers in Conversation reading series, which has moved online this academic year.

Livesey, also a professor at the famous Iowa Writers\' Workshop, will join us Monday 15 March at 7:30 pm GMT, online at our YouTube channel.

Information is available on the Writers in Conversation blog - https://writersinconversation.wordpress.com/ - and on the WiC Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1501076296873938

Livesey will be talking about her ninth novel, The Boy in the Field, with Carole Burns, the University of Southampton's Head of Creative Writing, exploring how she came to write this poignant and probing psychological drama, which follows the lives of three siblings who discover a young man after he's been violently attacked.

Livesey, born in Scotland and living in the United States now for more than thirty years, is the author of eight previous novels, a story collection, and a book of essays about the craft of fictional writing. Her honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts.

The book was published in 2020 by Hoddard & Stoughton in the UK and by HarperCollins in the USA.

This event will broadcast live on YouTube and Facebook, but don't forget to set a reminder!

Visit Margot Livesey official website: https://www.margotlivesey.com/

Follow Margot on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/margotlivesey

Rebecca Smith, the author of three novels as well as two non-fiction books, and principal teaching fellow with the English department at the University of Southampton, is our final guest this spring at our Writers in Conversation reading series, which has moved online this academic year.

Smith will join us Monday 26 April at 7:30 pm GMT, online at our Youtube channel. Information is available on our blog - https://writersinconversation.wordpress.com/ - and on our Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1501076296873938


Smith will read from and talk about her new novel, The Ash Museum, with Carole Burns, the University of Southampton's Head of Creative Writing.

The novel, being released 3 May, spans ten decades and across three continents, encompassing an intergenerational story of loss, migration and the search for somewhere to feel at home.

As Philip Hoare, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, wrote: "Endlessly exciting in its filmic, short, sharp scenes, grippingly narrative in its interwoven tales of loss and identity and home, Rebecca Smith's book demonstrates, yet again, her gift for vivid humour and deep empathy, all stirred up in her trademark scintillating prose."

This event will broadcast live on YouTube and Facebook, but don't forget to set a reminder!

Follow Rebecca on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/RMSmithAuthor

About the book: https://www.legendpress.co.uk/the-ash-museum

Pregnancy, Birth and Motherhood are amongst the experiences most central to human lives. In 3 online events, the University of Southampton Faculty of Arts and Humanities Advanced Seminar Series 2020-2021 brings together scholars working on Pregnancy, Birth and Motherhood, from across the arts and humanities and beyond.

The third seminar focuses on birth, exploring representations of in television, music and literature, women's agency in the birthing room and birthing outside the guidelines.

The sessions will include a panel discussion, followed by a short break, then speakers will respond to questions and comments from the audience. As the seminar will be recorded and made publicly available, we ask participants to post written questions which will be read out by the Chair, Professor Fiona Woollard.

Speakers:
- Elselijn Kingma (UoS Philosophy) and Lisa Smith (Consultant Midwife, Princess Anne Hospital, Southampton), Birthing Outside the Guidelines.
- Kirsty Bolton (UoS English), Women's Agency in the Birthing Room in Medieval Romance.
- Sofia Bull (UoS Film), Representations of Birth in Television.
- Anita Sikora (UoS Politics, Languages, and International Studies /Music), Birth on the Early Modern Stage.