What Happens Now? It's Conference Season....

It’s July, it’s raining, it’s less than two months until launch...so C21 Literature went on tour! On 2^ndJuly 2012, the University of Brighton and the HEA devoted a whole day to examining new issues, genres, forms and technologies of writing, as well as investigating contemporary theory and criticism and the publication, circulation and teaching of post-millennial writings. The Teaching Post-Millennial Literature symposium united forty five intergenerational scholars—from PhD candidates and ECRs to renowned Professors and senior academics, as well as creative writers and academic publishers including Continuum Bloomsbury, Palgrave and Gylphi—to debate the opportunities and challenges of teaching post-millennial literature.

Offering a platform for engaged theoretical responses, alongside practice-based creative case studies, papers examined post-millennial evolutions in writing since the year 2000, presenting the emerging field of twenty-first century literature as a new and directional source of understanding and creative inspiration. Events were tweeted live and a record of discussions, presentations and photographs from the day can be found at #HEAdayC21. A full report from the symposium will also appear on the HEA Literature Subject Centre website from Autumn 2012.

Later in the month,  discussions relocated North to Lincioln. Headed up by Sian Adiseshiah and Rupert Hildyard, the second bi-annual What Happens Now? conference (16-18 July) united academics, PhD students and writers from across the globe for three days of discussions and readings. Prof Peter Boxall offered keynotes at both Brighton and Lincoln, reflecting on the environmental disaster novel and its predictions for the future of both the novel form and narrative prose in the twenty-first century. His paper at Lincoln focused on McCarthy’s The Road (2006) to reveal the ways in which the novel might name an unnameable present and offer a utopian future gift to the world at a time of transition.

Other panels on the opening day concentrated on the rise of Dave Eggers, the retro-revisiting of the 1970s and 80s in popular fiction and culture, mediating digital experiences of literature and writing comedy in twenty-first century narratives. With readings from Geoff Dyer, Tishani Doshi and Kathleen Jamie, the event was testament to the range and vibrancy of debates underway in this emerging field of literary and cultural studies. C21 Literature enjoyed a preview night as part of What Happens Now? at the Hilton skylight bar overlooking Lincoln Cathedral. With many of the contributors to our first issue in attendance, the night gave us the rare chance to meet some of the brilliant authors whose work will feature in our launch issue this Autumn. The night also provided the opportunity to announce that the second issue of C21 Literature will be guest edited by Sian and Rupert and will feature a range of papers premiered at the conference. Look out for a CFP in October for this 2013 second (REF-able!) Issue.

Issue One will launch this Autumn – for more details, to subscribe, or to find details of the CFP for Issue Two from October, please visit: www.gylphi.co.uk/C21literature, add us at www.facebook.com/c21literature or follow us on https://twitter.com/C21Literature.

Teaching Post-Millennial Literature

A quick blog post about an exciting upcoming event organised by the Editor of C21 Literature. This one day symposium is co-hosted by the Higher Education Academy for the UK and by the University of Brighton, Faculty of Arts. It offers the unique opportunity to share and exchange ideas about the challenges and possibilities of teaching C21 Literature. And a free lunch. Who said there was no such thing...? Read on, submit a paper and/or sign up - places are strictly limited!

Teaching Post-Millennial Literature

http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/research/research-conferences/teaching-post-millennial-literature/_nocache

2nd Jul 2012
Checkland, Falmer Campus

A one-day symposium organised through the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and the Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton

Cost: FREE (Space Strictly Limited)

Deadline for proposals: 15th May 2012

Keynote 1: Dr David James (University of Nottingham)
Keynote 2: Prof Peter Boxall (University of Sussex)

The first decade of the new millennium witnessed a range of exciting developments in English Literature. From innovations in recognised forms such as the novel, poem, play and short story to developments in blogging, digital writings, new media, creative writing and new genre and trends from Steampunk to Slash, Nordic Noir to Faction. Alongside these developments, the publishing industry also changed, with technological advances giving rise to the dawn of the eBook and corporate sponsorship igniting debates about the usefulness of literary prizes and festivals.

This unique one day event will reflect on the teaching of post-millennial literature in HE and FE to offer the emerging field of twenty-first century literature as a new and directional source of understanding and creative inspiration for contemporary students and scholars.

Proposals for 20 minute papers may address, but are not limited to:

Post-Millennial forms, genres and trends
New authors
Literary prizes and festivals
Adaptations and innovations
Digital writings and publishing
Book clubs
Creative writing

For those giving papers, all travel expenses will be covered by the HEA

For those wishing to attend, the symposium - including refreshments and lunch - is free, but spaces are strictly limited and early registration is vital

To send a paper proposal (150 words by 15th May) or register for a place at this event please email K.Shaw@brighton.ac.uk 

Reading Room

The following post is a guest blog by C21 Literature Deputy Editor Prof Deborah Philips:

China Miéville, Deborah Moggach, Joanna Trollope and Zadie Smith are among the 21st-century writers who have been vociferous in the defence of their local libraries. Jeanette Winterson and Alan Bennett are only two among the many contemporary authors who have written movingly about the significance that libraries have played in their lives, both have written not only about the importance of access to books, but also of the significance of the fact that the library provided a quiet space to read, and a validation of that reading. Bennett has also written a fantasy, The Uncommon Reader, of what it might mean for the nation if our own dear Queen were to discover a mobile library at the back of Buckingham Palace. Sadly, this is now even more unlikely than it once was, as mobile libraries are steadily being cut by local council.

Despite the fact that under the 1964 Museums and Public Libraries Act, local authorities are required to provide a 'comprehensive and efficient service to all', local authorities were required by the coalition government to make stringent cut backs in their budgets and given a target to reduce spending by 28%. Libraries were made to compete for funding with services for children and the elderly; in 2011, up to 800 libraries, a fifth of the number across England, were threatened with closure.

In London, Brent has closed six out of 12 local libraries, among them the Kensal Rise library, which had been opened by Mark Twain in 1900 and which could count Zadie Smith among its readers. Across the country, 32 libraries have closed and some have been turned into benign sounding 'community libraries'.  The libraries were a key component in the Conservative strategy of a 'Big Society' – understood as eminently open to being run by volunteers. Eight libraries to date are run by the local community; this means a library staffed not by librarians, with all their specialist knowledge and experience, but by volunteers who may have good will, but no training.

Another strategy to keep libraries open has been the outsourcing of library 'management'. Camden Council has been one of those considering employing a management company, and among the names considered is that of W. S. Atkins, who are among the corporations circling to take over from local authority management. W. S.  Atkins describe themselves as a 'multi-national management and consultancy company';but its origins are in engineering and building, and the founder was an evangelical Christian, an ethos that still prevails in the company (in itself a disconcerting qualification for running libraries). W.S. Atkins have experience of running libraries in America, where they have been sacked for mismanagement. It is also worth asking why it is that a company based in construction and engineering should have a particular interest in library buildings, which in England tend to be rather impressive structures, often based in central positions in a town or city.

Ken Worpole's research has demonstrated what a vital resource the public library is for communities, and for individuals.  His 2003 report Better Public Libraries shows how important they are particularly for young people and for the elderly, for the disadvantaged and the unemployed. They now provide not just newspapers but access to the Internet and he shows that the library as a public space is a significant place of transition and reflection;a space between school and home, between work and the domestic which is of particular importance to refugee and ethnic minority populations.

My own experience supports Worpole's arguments; this is anecdotal evidence, but it is telling. I live in a mansion block in Central London, and my nearest neighbours are a family from Somalia.  Six years ago, the eldest brother, knowing that I was a teacher of some kind, knocked on my door and asked if I could help his younger brother and sister, then aged 10 and 12, with their reading and writing.  After several weeks of rather dull homework sessions with me, I thought the best thing I could do for them was to haul them off to the local library. At the library we found a dedicated room and a librarian on hand to advise, stocked with computers, shelves of text books and reference books directly related to the school syllabus.  We also found rows of age appropriate fiction and DVDs, and piles of leaflets with advice on everything from how to apply to college, to finding a woman only swimming class appropriate for a young Muslim.  For the next two years, it became a Saturday morning ritual to go to the library, often with a troop of small friends and relations in tow. Six years on, the younger brother is now in his first year at university, while his sister did spectacularly well in her GCSEs, and is planning to go on to do medicine. I can take no credit for their achievements, but the library can. It provided them with information, computer space that they did not have to fight for, and, perhaps most importantly, a quiet space that was designed to support study. The library offered possibilities and potential, which they took that up and ran with.

Alan Bennett is among the local people active in the campaign to Save Primrose Hill Library. In an interview with Camden New Journal, he describes seeing a child signing up for her first library card with her younger brother.  She was, Bennett said embarking on a lifetime of reading, 'That's why  you can't quantify what the library means, because it so much the future for children like that and children who wouldn't have not merely the books, but a place to read' (Camden New Journal, 23/2/2012). Those children could have been my neighbours - who had no books at home, and nowhere to read. They all represent children across the country who depend on the library for their futures.  As Bennett argues:  'The library set you up for life. . . it is something that you should take for granted really. Libraries should be taken for granted, it is one of the things that
marks us as civilised, as a civilised community'.

Libraries can no longer be taken for granted. Public Libraries News has a 'Horror Section' on its websites with reports of impending closures, cuts to hours, book stocks and qualified staff; according to their figures, 407 libraries are now at risk of closure with more expected after the new financial year. Local libraries are at threat across the country and there is a campaign near you.

E-Reading Between The Lines

Production of the first issue of C21 Literature is well underway with carefully chosen readers currently reporting back on our commissioned articles. In coming months these brilliant pieces will be drawn together with creative writings, comments and reviews to form an exciting new journal due for release in Summer 2012. In celebration of the approach date of our launch, C21 Literature will be hosting a drinks reception during the First Fictions Festival on Sunday 22nd January 2012 at 8pm in the Fulton Building of the University of Sussex. As part of this event the editorial team will be giving a talk on the journal, detailing the call for papers for Issue Two and giving advice on how to submit. Please come along and say hello. Details of how to register for the event can be found here: http://www.myriadeditions.com/first-fictions-home

As part of our engagement with contemporary writings, C21 Literature felt it was important to launch our journal in both print and e-formats. E-readers and e-books enjoy an increasing influence over the ways we consume literature in the twenty first century. Recently, the panel of the Booker Prize were offered e-readers to help them transport and digest the long list. Dubbed by some critics the ‘E-Booker’ Prize as a result, this decision highlighted the number of publishers who are moving towards dual release in both print and e-formats. Reader can now choose between a Sony Reader, a Kindle, a new Kindle Fire (showing text and images), Ipads, a kobo e-reader...the list is endless. A recent advert for one of these new devices claims that the e-reader comes with free access to around one hundred thousand books whose copyrights have expired. We all know classics can be found cheaply and that Amazon marketplace is a great source of low-cost seconds, but can anything ever compete with free? E-books offer multi-media content, hyperlinks to other e-resources, cut and paste facilities, regularly updated content and interactivity which printed books are simply unable to match. In a world where popular texts such as newspapers, blogs, Twitter feeds and Facebook updates are read online, e-books speak to a generation for whom instant access and ease of use are key factors in contemporary cultural encounters. Women, often considered the gender most reluctant to take up new forms of technology, constitute the highest percentage of e-book owners and are fuelling a surge in online book clubs. A recent report even highlighted that the anonymous cover of the e-book is enabling readers to indulge in less literary titles, with romance and erotic fiction seeing a significant increase in download sales.

If the printed book is ‘old skool’, the e-book is simply too cool for school. With changeable covers and slim travel-friendly sizes, the e-reader is the supermodel of the publishing world. For many, this weight issue is key. In my own days as a student, I dreamt of a lighter alternative to the (literally) weighty tome that is the Norton Anthology of English Literature. As both an academic aid and domestic door stop of choice, the Norton Anthology was unceremoniously dragged from one lecture to the next until curvature of the spine kicked in. Today, students simply snap open their laptops, MacBooks, Smartphones and e-readers to hunt down paragraphs and search for key words from the exact same text, but in e-book form. With no traditional allegiance to print, this younger generation are making the change to e books far more easily than their elders, many of whom already possess print copies of their favourite books and are reluctant to purchase them again. With the much maligned decline of the high street book seller and the dominance of Amazon, the shift to electronic formats - which can be produced and distributed rapidly - is creating a growing market worthy of serious attention. Amid talk of a Spotify for books and book apps overtaking games apps in download charts, publishers have begun investing in advertising for e-books and building exclusive content to motivate readers to take up this new format. The e-book of Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Monroe recently captured press attention for its exclusive social networking links, enhancements including audio of author readings and lyrics that sit alongside the traditional text. Changing the way we engage with as well as consume fiction, the e reader and e-books are altering our cultural landscape, creating multi-layered dialogic literary experiences.

Light, fast, clear and easy to navigate, the e-reader is in many ways the ideal companion of the twenty-first century book lover. But at what cost to the printed word? In their infancy, the e-reader and e-book have experienced some teething problems. Authors like Stephen King, whose new texts have been leaked as e-books prior to publication, have proved the strength of demand for the format but have also highlighted its pitfalls. Piracy is the one dark cloud on the e-horizon and many publishers are currently working on plans to avoid their own e-books falling victim to file sharing websites like PirateBay. Issues relating to royalties, copyright and ownership continue to loom large over the development of this technology. And for many, the e-book is simply another gadget to add to our already over-filled bags. Jammed alongside our laptop, smartphone and IPod, the need to integrate rather than propagate technology is cited as a major factor by those who choose to stay with the printed form. Readers can also find it hard to accept price levelling across print and e-formats. Given the choice, would you pay the same price for a hardback, paperback or e-book? Should e-books be cheaper, since the printing cost of production and distribution is so much smaller? And should readers be given the choice of both printed and electronic formats – or is the book set to become the vinyl of the twenty-first century? Whether we turn to technology to disguise our secret Mills and Boon habit or to display our technological cool, these new forms have already changed the ways in which we consume and experience literature. In dialogue with the printed book, the e-book has been instrumental in generating debate, new writings and innovative content and has enriched our literary experience in the twenty-first century. At present the two co-exist, but how long until the e coup?

Dr Katy Shaw

Exposing A Dark World

Hello and welcome to the first C21 Literature: Journal of 21st Century Writings Blog. As Editor, it has fallen to me to take the first steps into the blogosphere but my co-editor and members of the editorial board will be hot on my heels in the coming months. Together, we’ll be offering a behind the scenes look at the design, production and promotion of C21 Literature as well as our reflections on current literary developments. We have been inundated with submissions for our first issue and as a result the commissioning process has been a long but thoroughly enjoyable one. We would like to thank everyone for an excellent range of abstracts and creative pieces. After some intense and interesting discussions, commissions have been chosen and matched with readers who will be casting a critical eye over the full-length pieces. In the coming months we will be editing book reviews and an exclusive piece of creative writing by a rising star of contemporary literature.
C21 Literature will launch in two stages during 2012. Our first launch will be an informal affair at the First Fictions festival with the University of Sussex and Myriad Editions in January. The second launch will be held at the University of Lincoln in July as part of the second bi-annual What Happens Next? Twenty-First Century Literature conference. Full details and information about tickets and times for both events will be featured in forthcoming C21 Literature blogs.
At the time of writing in September 2011, the twenty-first century world has temporarily turned its attention away from the olympic fascination of 2012 and back to the start of the new millennium and the influential events of 2001. With the recent tenth anniversary of 9/11, questions regarding the role of literature in understanding contemporary events have arisen again. In the immediate days and weeks after 9/11, a widespread panic grew about the purpose of literature – and the author - in a new world of danger and uncertainty. Martin Amis famously claimed that ‘after a couple of hours at their desks, on September 12 2001, all the writers on earth were reluctantly considering a change of occupation’. While it is probably fairer to say ‘some’ not ‘all’ writers experienced this doubt, the role of the writer and particularly of fiction was the subject of much debate in the post-9/11 world. Writers were asking whether they had indeed found themselves living in ‘the age of horrorism’ Amis knee-jerkingly predicted or whether they had instead been thrust into a new international game of heroes and villains.
The ten years following the attacks have produced a range of fictional responses to 9/11. Some have forced us to reconsider not only the terrible events of that day but the weeks, months and years before it, to use a tragedy as a way of accessing a wider comprehension of other peoples, beliefs and ways of understanding the world. Others have chosen to focus on a sense of nostalgia for a time before the towers, a utopian vision of the past that we must fight to reclaim.
As Eisenberg wrote in the short story ‘Twilight of the Superheroes’, ‘The planes struck, tearing through the curtain of that blue September morning, exposing the dark world that lay right behind it’. Shaken from a state of perceived innocence, the events of 9/11 compelled - rather than forced - writers to reconsider the function of their work. While Amis speculated that ‘a feeling of gangrenous futility had effected the whole corpus’ of literary output, Ian McEwan felt it ‘wearisome’ to consider inventing fiction when so much remained to be learned about current events. His desire to use post-9/11 literature to educate, to use fiction as an informing force, has proved influential in literary responses produced in the face of a new and unknown world of danger.
Focusing on literature – and especially the novel – the first decade of the twenty-first century has seen authors attempt to understand both the events of 9/11 and the altered landscapes left in its wake. But the coming generation will have to look much further back, not only to understand the events of 9/11 but how they came about, why they reached such a demonstrative pinnacle of terror and the effect of their reverberations on the post 9/11 world. For twenty-first century readers, this new generation of literature has the potential to offer a valuable and focalising source of understanding for our present and future. In exposing a dark world, the events of 9/11 changed not only the course of international history, but the path of literature in the twenty-first century. C21 Literature aims to create a critical, discursive space for the promotion and exploration of these writings as well as new creative work.
Watch this space.

Dr Katy Shaw