Writing Lives: Biography and Beyond

Follow Writing Lives: Biography and Beyond
Share on
Copy link to clipboard

Join biographer Kate Kennedy and poet Katherine Collins from the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing as they talk to leading biographers and academics from around the world. From medieval records to social media trends, diaries to musical scores, they explore


    • Oct 8, 2021 LATEST EPISODE
    • infrequent NEW EPISODES
    • 33m AVG DURATION
    • 8 EPISODES


    Search for episodes from Writing Lives: Biography and Beyond with a specific topic:

    Latest episodes from Writing Lives: Biography and Beyond

    Devaki Jain & Gloria Steinem: Writing a Radical Life

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 8, 2021 41:51


    Noted feminist economist Devaki Jain talks about writing her memoir, The Brass Notebook (2020), with her long-term friend, Gloria Steinem. They are hosted by Katherine Collins and Elleke Boehmer. Together, they discuss Jain and Steinem's friendship (which spans many years as fellow activists), telling their mothers' stories, and women becoming more radical as they get older. Content warning: brief discussion of sexual assault. Keywords: feminism, economics, India, motherhood, family history, activism, feminist economics. Find out more about: Devaki Jain: Book: The Brass Notebook: A Memoir (2020) Profile: ‘First Women at Oxford' Gloria Steinem: Website: https://www.gloriasteinem.com/ Twitter: @GloriaSteinem The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing: Website: https://oclw.web.ox.ac.uk/ Twitter: @OxLifeWriting If you'd like to be more involved, access exclusive events and attend our online book club, then join our Friends of OCLW scheme. We also offer writing groups and mentoring to those working on their own writing projects. The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing is based at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Artwork by Una. Edited by Charles Pidgeon.

    John Schad & Alexandra Harris: Imagining a Modernist Life

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2021 30:37


    John Schad's experimental biography, Paris Bride: A Modernist Life, mixes fact and fiction as it speculates on the life of one of his ancestors, Marie Schad. Confronted with scant archival fact, John turns to literary pastiche and quotation to imagine her early-twentieth-century life by thinking alongside modernist writers. Long-time friend of the podcast, Alexandra Harris, a writer and literary critic who specialises in literary modernism, joins this discussion to give her insights on the literary context. Keywords: twentieth-century, modernism, experimental biography, post-criticism, family history. Find out more about: John Schad: Book: Paris Bride: A Modernist Life (2020) John is Professor of Modern Literature at the University of Lancaster. See profile. Alexandra Harris: Website: https://www.alexandraharris.co.uk/ Twitter: @AlexHHarris The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing: Website: https://oclw.web.ox.ac.uk/ Twitter: @OxLifeWriting If you'd like to be more involved, access exclusive events and attend our online book club, then join our Friends Scheme. We also offer writing groups and mentoring to those working on their own writing projects. The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing is based at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Artwork by Una. Edited by Charles Pidgeon.

    Helena Attlee & Sophy Roberts: writing the lives of musical instruments

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2021 49:50


    Helena Attlee and Sophy Roberts have both written "biographies" of musical instruments. Sophy Roberts's book, The Lost Pianos of Siberia, sees her track down these instruments in remote landscapes all across Russia, tracing the unique importance of pianos to Tsarist and USSR history, and the poignant stories of the individuals who used them. Helena Attlee's book, Lev's Violin, follows the story of one particular violin across Italy and beyond, describing the wider history of European luthiers, and exploring how we ascribe monetary value to these emotionally charged objects. They talk to Kate Kennedy (herself a cellist) about what it means to write the story of an instrument. Donate to restore Lev's Violin: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/save-levs-violin Find out more about: Sophy Roberts: Book: The Lost Pianos of Siberia (2020) Website: https://www.sophyroberts.com/ Instagram: @sophy.roberts Helena Attlee: Book: Lev's Violin: an Italian Adventure (2021) Website: www.helena-attlee.com Twitter: @HelenaAttlee The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing: Website: https://oclw.web.ox.ac.uk/ Twitter: @OxLifeWriting If you'd like to be more involved, access exclusive events and attend our online book club, then join our Friends Scheme. We also offer writing groups and mentoring to those working on their own writing projects. The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing is based at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Artwork by Una. Edited by Charles Pidgeon.

    Tamarin Norwood: Writing a very brief life

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 1, 2021 42:54


    Tamarin Norwood discusses her current project: writing the brief life of her son, Gabriel, who died shortly after his birth. Reflecting on her background as an artist and researcher, she talks about the deep coincidences between her doctoral research and her experiences of pregnancy, as well as how pervasive metaphors (to do with sleeping, being underwater, or in the dark) structure our cultural narratives around birth, death, and bereavement. Content warning: this episode discusses neonatal loss, grief, motherhood, and pregnancy. Find out more about: The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing: https://oclw.web.ox.ac.uk/ @OxLifeWriting. Tamarin Norwood: https://tamarinnorwood.co.uk/ @TamarinNorwood Works mentioned: Sarah Knott, Mother is a verb (Sarah Crichton Books, 2019). If you'd like to be more involved, access exclusive events and attend our online book club, then join our Friends Scheme. We also offer writing groups and mentoring to those working on their own writing projects. The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing is based at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Artwork by Una. Edited by Charles Pidgeon. If you'd like to be more involved, access exclusive events and attend our virtual book club, then join our Friends Scheme. We also offer writing groups and mentoring to those working on their own life writing projects.

    Heather Clark & Hermione Lee: Sylvia Plath, an iconic life

    Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2021 25:09


    Heather Clark discusses her new and highly praised biography of Sylvia Plath with celebrated biographer Hermione Lee, as well as Oxford University student, Lucy Cobold. They talk about the challenges of writing “big” biography (Clark's biography of Plath is over 900 pages); the importance of treating women like Plath and Virginia Woolf first and foremost as professional writers rather than patients; and the conscious decision to avoid certain loaded words (like ‘doomed' or ‘neurotic') when approaching a writer like Plath. Find out more about The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing: www.oclw.ox.ac.uk @OxLifeWriting. Heather Clark: https://heatherclarkauthor.com/ @Plathbiography Hermione Lee: http://www.hermionelee.com/ Works mentioned - Heather Clark, Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath (Knopf, 2020) - Hermione Lee, Virginia Woolf (Chatto & Windus, 1996). Artwork by Una. Edited by Charles Pidgeon. If you'd like to be more involved, access exclusive events and attend our virtual book club, then join our Friends Scheme. We also offer writing groups and mentoring to those working on their own life writing projects.

    Richard Mabey & Alexandra Harris: Lives of Naturalists Part 2

    Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2021 26:06


    In this follow up discussion to Episode 1, Richard Mabey, Alexandra Harris, and Katherine Collins discuss the connections between life-writing and place. They talk about the overlap between science and poetry as ways of exploring the world around us, how our senses shape our writing, Gilbert White's attempt to communicate with his pet tortoise, and Richard's ideas about the future of nature writing. Find out more about: The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing: www.oclw.ox.ac.uk @OxLifeWriting. Richard Mabey: https://richardmabey.co.uk/ Alexandra Harris: https://www.alexandraharris.co.uk/ Works mentioned: - Richard Mabey, Gilbert White: A biography of the author of The Natural History of Selbourne [1986] (Allen & Unwin, 2006). - Alice Oswald, ‘Tithonus, 46 minutes in the life of the dawn' in Falling Awake (Johnathan Cape, 2016). - Annie Dillard, The Writing Life [1989] (Harper Collins, 2013). - Richard Powers, The Overstory (W.W. Norton and Company, 2018). - Verlyn Kinklenborg, Timothy, or Notes of an Abject Reptile (Alfred A. Knopf, 2006) The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing is based at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Edited by Charles Pidgeon. Artwork by Una.

    Richard Mabey & Alexandra Harris: Lives of Naturalists Part 1

    Play Episode Listen Later May 4, 2021 48:18


    Celebrated nature writer Richard Mabey discusses the relationship between biography, nature, and place with literary critic Alexandra Harris. They delve into a life-writing classic, Richard's biography of the eighteenth-century naturalist Gilbert White, which won the Whitbread Biography Prize in 1986, and discuss what drew him to write about 'this quiet curate of Selbourne' and the ways in which a writer's sense of place may shape their writing. This episode is part of our flagship series of Weinrebe Lectures. It is the first instalment of an annual collaboration with the Arts of Place Network at the University of Birmingham, which promotes work on cultural histories of landscape, locality and environment. Find out more about: The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing: www.oclw.ox.ac.uk @OxLifeWriting. Richard Mabey: https://richardmabey.co.uk/ Alexandra Harris: https://www.alexandraharris.co.uk/ Arts of Place: https://more.bham.ac.uk/artsofplace/ Works mentioned: Richard Mabey, Gilbert White: A biography of the author of The Natural History of Selbourne [1986] (Allen & Unwin, 2006). Richard Mabey, Food for Free [1972] (Harper Collins, 2007). The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing is based at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Edited by Charles Pidgeon. Artwork by Una.

    Trailer

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 23, 2021 2:05


    A first look at the new podcast series by the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing. Co-hosts Kate Kennedy and Katherine Collins introduce themselves and the podcast, indicating what listeners can expect to hear: interesting discussions with noted writers, biographers, and academics. Hermione Lee and Elleke Boehmer describe what we mean by life-writing as well as its importance as a vital cultural practice. Find out more about OCLW: www.oclw.ox.ac.uk @OxLifeWriting.

    Claim Writing Lives: Biography and Beyond

    In order to claim this podcast we'll send an email to with a verification link. Simply click the link and you will be able to edit tags, request a refresh, and other features to take control of your podcast page!

    Claim Cancel