I have a new article out in Literature Interpretation Theory Journal which explores the writing of Surrealist Leonora Carrington and Dubravka Ugresic. Carrington’s Down Below (1944) and Ugresic’s The Ministry of Pain (2006) are two books which have long fascinated me. Why? Because both writers interweave visual art techniques into their creative writing to generate new narrative possibilities. You can read my article ‘Breaking the Frame: The Role of Artmaking in Narratives of Migration and Diaspora‘ here:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10436928.2022.2100667
Below, Leonora Carrington’s self-portrait (1936-37) which she took with her to Paris when she embarked on her career as an artist.
‘My new short story ‘Being Gideon‘ has been published by MIRonline – the journal of the Centre for Creative Writing at Birkbeck. It’s about a young man who seeks to be himself in spite of the violence done to him. Read at:
http://mironline.org/being-gideon/
In spring 2023, I will be designing and running a series of creative writing workshops for Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board’s newly launched Wellness Improvement Service (WISe).
WISe will encourage and support patients to take control of their own health, including the management of chronic pain and other long-term conditions. As part of the service, they will have the opportunity to take part in a series of creative workshops organised in partnership with the Health Board’s Arts and Performance Department. In my creative writing workshops, participants will be invited to design and ‘build’ a House of Dreams and Memories. Inspired by Bachelard’s Poetics of Space, the workshops will take a playful and creative look at the spaces which nurture and renew us.
In June 2022, I discussed my research for a new creative non-fiction project at the Bearing Untold Stories conference organised by the Department of English and Creative Writing at University of Lancaster. This new work is partly inspired by the life and work of the German Jewish emigre artist Eva Frankfurther (1930-1959). Unattached to any major artistic group or movement, Frankfurther chose to live and work close to those she painted in the Whitechapel district of London, including her friends from the West Indian community.
© Ben Uri Gallery Archive