‘Books in the Making’ Symposium
Dr Kasia Boddy, Fellow and Director of Studies in English, is convening, together with David Winters (English PhD, Pembroke), the ‘Books in the Making’ symposium taking place at CRASSH on 14–15 April 2016.
This interdisciplinary symposium seeks to expand and enrich our understanding of contemporary literary production, situating today’s fiction within a wider field, encompassing literary agents, editors, book reviewers, writing teachers, prize judges, festival organizers, and more.
A keynote address will be given by Professor Jim English (University of Pennsylvania), the author of The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value (Harvard UP), which was named Best Academic Book of 2005 by New York Magazine.
Kasia Boddy said, ‘In bringing together academics and industry professionals, our symposium aims to expand an understanding of how books are ‘made’ —where a book’s ‘making’ consists not just of its writing or even its reading, but also its physical production, and its diffusion through cultural institutions such as reviewing and prize-giving. Importantly, the symposium will also attend to the ways in which books are now being ‘remade’ by new formats and technologies. Through an interdisciplinary exploration of these processes of making and remaking, we will also consider the consequences for contemporary writing of ongoing changes in its production and dissemination.’
‘Books in the Making’ is organized in conjunction with the Cambridge Literary Festival, which this year will feature best-selling American crime writer Lee Child. Child will be joined by Dr Andy Martin, Lecturer in French Literature and Philosophy at the University, who followed the author for a year as he wrote his latest thriller, Make Me.
To find out more about the ‘Books in the Making’ symposium and to register online >>
Registration for the Symposium includes a ticket for Lee Child & Andy Martin’s event at the Cambridge Literary Festival .
Photo credit: 'Warehouseman' © Stephen Hampshire (on Flickr)
