RSL Remembers: Fleur Adcock Recordings
Fleur Adcock’s work defined a new tone in 20th century poetry. Her writing was, and remains, beloved by poets, teachers and a wide range of readers, who value her incisive wit, beautiful frankness and often surprising humour. To quote Carol Ann Duffy’s description of Fleur Adcock’s poetry: “The sharper edge of her talent is encountered like […]
Literature Matters: Michael Imperioli and Ocean Vuong
Please enjoy Michael Imperioli and Ocean Vuong in this exclusive online conversation about their writing and the importance of literature in their lives. Both Michael and Ocean published their debut novels in recent years, The Perfume Burned His Eyes and On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous respectively. They discussed the experience of writing and releasing […]
Newcastle Poetry Festival 2023
Celebrating its seventh year, the Newcastle Poetry Festival theme last year was ‘Community’, exploring poetry’s contribution to different communities and the power of writing collectives to encourage creativity. As part of the festival on the 13 May, we introduced RSL Fellow Sandeep Parmar, who gave a lecture on ‘Motherhood, Whiteness and Empathy in Contemporary British Poetry’: considering […]
Literature Matters RSL 200: Neil Gaiman and Marlon James in conversation
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RSL 200: Stephen Fry and Shaparak Khorsandi
Stephen Fry talks to Shappi Khorsandi about writing across forms – from sketch comedy to poetry, independently and in collaboration, written and performed – that has elevated him to the status of national treasure.
New Daughters of Africa
Winsome Pinnock is elected a Fellow of the RSL.
Women in Power
On International Women’s Day 2019, three women working in the fields of business, law and politics discuss affecting change through writing, and what it means to be a woman with influence. Baroness Helena Kennedy is a leading barrister and expert in human rights law. In her 1992 book Eve Was Shamed, which was re-issued in […]
Literature Matters: Writing and Frankness
Why do we read? Why do we write? What do we reveal when we do? A writer (Deborah Levy), a psychotherapist (Adam Phillips) and a philosopher (Amia Srinivasan) discuss what we reveal about ourselves through literature and the difference, if any, between non-fiction, novels and the psychotherapist’s couch. The conversation is chaired by writer and […]
Truth to Life
In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1995, Seamus Heaney said, ‘I credit poetry because credit is due to it, in our time and in all time, for its truth to life, in every sense of that phrase.’ Five years after his death, we celebrate the lasting power of Heaney’s verse, his ability to ‘credit […]
Lifting the Curtain: Theatre and censorship
If we can’t be provocative in the theatre where can we be provocative. Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti Marking 50 years since the Lord Chamberlain was stripped of his power to censor plays, three theatre writers examine playwriting in the UK and freedom of expression. The panel, including director Sir Richard Eyre and playwrights Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, […]
Masked/Unmasked
‘Man is least himself when he talks in his own person,’ wrote Oscar Wilde. ‘Give him a mask and he will tell the truth.’ During the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition ‘Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: behind the mask, another mask’ the RSL co-hosts a discussion about how masks can both hide and reveal. Novelist and […]
T. S. Eliot Memorial Reading with Carol Ann Duffy
Born in the Gorbals in 1955, Carol Ann Duffy has been Poet Laureate for the past eight years. Her poems blend humour and warmth with sharp social commentary and are on GCSE and A-level syllabuses.Her work has been garlanded with prizes, including the Forward Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize and the PEN/Pinter Prize. She reads […]