Rachel Holmes on Radio 4

Catch Rachel Holmes, Head of Literature and Spoken Word at Southbank Centre on Radio 4 this January. Rachel discusses the legacy of the King James Bible, 400 years after its original publication, with presenter James Naughtie, Renaissance scholar Gordon Campbell and poet Kei Miller.

Described today in the Independent as ‘the bible that even atheists worship’, this fascinating programme explores the impact of the King James Bible on English language and culture, uncovering its many contributions to our everyday lexicon, including phrases such as ‘salt of the earth’‘skin of their teeth’ and ‘apple of her eye’.

The programme, part of which was recorded at the Southbank Centre, is the last in a three-part series marking the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible and goes out on 5 January at 9am, repeated again at 9.30pm on the same day.

Full details of the programme can be found here.

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Certificates of Readership

There’s a new exhibition at the Poetry Library that draws on the borrowing lives of books in the Library’s collection – and you can take some of it home with you.

Artist Sara MacKillop has created a series of certificates that chart the borrowing history of twelve of the Poetry Library’s books, giving us visual interpretations of each book’s lending lifespan. By highlighting the visual markers that occur in the lending process, MacKillop’s exhibition explores new narratives that appreciate over time and are etched into every book.

As well as being able to view framed copies of the certificates on the walls of the Poetry Library, a limited number of free prints have also been made available for people who borrow any of the twelve books involved in the exhibition. This emphasises the link between poet and reader that the Library safeguards, and invites us to discover the poetry of the Library itself.

The exhibition has been curated by Richard Parry of the Hayward Gallery and will run until 15th August 2010. There is more information about the exhibition and the Poetry Library here.

Celebrate World Book Day at the Dylan Thomas Centre

The Dylan Thomas Centre celebrates World Book Day on 4 March with offers in our bookshop throughout the day, and a special, free evening event at 7pm.

Our bookshop is open from 10am to 4.30pm, and there will be thousands of second-hand books on offer at half-price, and reductions on many new books. Relax in the unique surroundings of the Dylan Thomas Centre, and browse the bookshelves while enjoying coffee and cake.

Join us at 7pm for ‘Stuff Happens’ on World Book Day. Inspired by the GPS project, and run in partnership with The Crunch poetry night at Mozarts, the Stuff Happens events bring together new and established voices from Swansea’s diverse poetry scene. To celebrate World Book Day, Stuff Happens readers will be discussing some of the authors who have influenced and inspired their own writing, and reading a poem or two. Those taking part include Nigel Jenkins, Margot Morgan, Emily Vanderploeg, Richard Jones, Alan Kellermann, Rhys Owain Williams, Liza Penn Thomas and Kelly Constanza, and the evening will be compered by Adam Sillman. There will be books and magazines for sale, dadaist poetry fun, and plenty of time to enjoy a drink and good conversation in between the readings.
Contact the Dylan Thomas Centre on 01792 463980 for more information.

SBC Creative Writing Summer School to continue!

On behalf of Rachel Holmes, Head of Literature and Spoken Word, and Greg Mosse, Director Creative Writing Summer School.

Online writing is brilliantly creative, unexpected and groundbreaking. Then it is tiresome and uninspired.

Anyone who attended Greg Mosse’s creative writing sessions at the SBC summer school will know that he stresses story-telling structure. This is equally true of online writing where the size of the screen may well be extremely restricted – either by the presence of ads and banners or due to the device being used.

Structure is also an issue between pages across hyperlinks within sites and, in some cases, from site to site.

We had superb feedback from participants in the summer school, so Greg and I have created two practical, highly-focused and topical evening workshops:

- Blogging 14th October

- Online Short Stories 18th November

The workshops will run from 18h30 to 21h00 (see the website and print programmes for venue). At least half of this time will be spent devising and writing original material. Wireless internet access will be available. The classes can be booked separately, at £15 or as a pair, at £28. Numbers will be limited to 25 to guarantee feedback to all participants.

I hope you enjoy them.

Rachel Holmes, Head of Literature and Spoken Word

Comment is not only free but positively encouraged.

If you’ve been reading these posts by the bloggers-in-residence and have your own perspectives on events you’ve seen or opinions on the posts you’ve read, please do comment.

We’re only really here to catalyse the debate and to flag up what we like the look of, but there are many more of you than there are of us and, frankly, you’ll have points of views that we haven’t considered. It’s not a private party but an open door. Come and join us in virtualitland. Just click on the ‘leave a comment’ tag at the bottom of each post and make free with your words. You’ll be very welcome!

Naughty Blezard!

I have a secret. And no, I’m not going to share it with you, not yet at least.

You’ll just have to come to ‘The Austen Industry’ event at 1pm on Saturday the 11th to find out what it is.

It’s a good ‘un, you’ll like it. Really…

See you at the Purcell Room tomorrow!

Looking for 16-22 year olds for London Literature Festival 2009

Southbank Centre is looking for creative, imaginative and committed young people between the ages of 16-22 to be part of London Literature Festival 2009.

Are you interested in literature, marketing, programming and performance? Could you work with a group of creative, like-minded people to produce an event for a world class literature festival?

From May to July, a team of young people will be supported through a series of creative master classes to develop skills as event producers and curators. Exploring the theme of escape and its destinations, the team will be collaborating with Southbank Centre staff, artists in residence and associates to develop, design and deliver an exciting event featuring spoken word, music and visual art.

You can see and hear about the show that young curators made for last years’ London Literature Festival in this podcast by creative mentor for the project, Yemisi Blake.


If you’re looking to get experience in event, production or marketing or if you’re interested in the arts more widely, we’re hoping to hear from you. There’s also the chance to get involved with blogging. You can listen to an interview with dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, created by Michael Oladeji, our young Poetry International blogger, a few months ago.

For more information, contact us  with your phone number, email address and a brief description of who you are and why you’d like to be involved. Keep 23rd May free for the recruitment day at Southbank Centre.

60 years of rights!

We celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December here at Southbank Centre with a special event, In Liberty’s Defence. Katy Tucker was there and posted her thoughts on her blog:
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New literature season announced!

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Revolutions is our theme for this year.

In the words of President Obama, ‘Change has come to America’ – a historical change made possible by the revolutions of our times. 2009 is the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, 40th anniversary of Stonewall, 30 years on from the Iranian Revolution, and 20 years since the fall of the Berlin wall and of democracy in Poland, Czech Republic and the Balkans.

In our Spring programme and throughout 2009, Southbank Centre Literature & Spoken Word explores revolution in all its forms.
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How Free is Our Speech?

The How Free is Our Speech event on 10 December, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has just had the line-up announced… join human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy QC, film-maker Rex Bloomstein, playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti and international labour rights activist and academic Khorshed Aslam for a night of debate, performance and film.

There are other performances happening in The Front Room as well. Find out more and get your tickets here.

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