Award-winning author and poet, Michèle Roberts, will talk about her work at a free event at the University of Portsmouth this Wednesday 23 January.
Best known for her highly acclaimed novels The Wild Girl (1984), In the Red Kitchen (1990), Daughters of the House (1992), The Mistress Class (2002) and Ignorance (2012), as well as her 2007 memoir Paper Houses, Ms Roberts is the guest of the Centre for Studies in Literature (CSL).
Award-winning author and poet, Michèle Roberts, who will be speaking at the University
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a member of PEN and The Society of Authors, and the judge of this year’s Bridport Prize for short stories.
Christine Berberich, senior lecturer in english literature, said: “The event is a wonderful opportunity for the University and the local community to engage with an award-winning author and her work, and will directly feed into ongoing research conducted by colleagues in the Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century British and American Literature research cluster.”
Born to a French mother and an English father, Ms Roberts grew up in a north-west London suburb but spent her summers in Normandy. After completing a BA in English Language and Literature at Oxford University, she studied to be a librarian, then spent a year working for the British Council in South-East Asia.
A period of travelling followed, then a variety of part-time jobs to support her writing career, including a hospital cleaner, temp secretary, clerk, teacher, journalist, reviewer and critic. She currently splits her time between France and England, where she is emeritus professor of creative writing at the University of East Anglia.
CSL, founded in spring 2009, hosts public events that highlight the link between creative and critical writing, public reception and academic research.
In October 2010, the Centre was officially launched with a public lecture by the renowned American cultural critic Camille Paglia. In April 2012, CSL hosted a book launch event at the ASPEX Gallery in Portsmouth, with acclaimed crime writer Patricia Duncker as a guest speaker. Michèle Roberts’ talk will continue this tradition.
Blackwell’s bookshop will be present with a display stand at the event.
Date: Wednesday 23 January 2013
Time: 6.00pm drinks and canapés, 7.00-9.00pm lecture and Q&A
Venue: Portland Building, Portland Street, Portsmouth PO1 3AH
Admission is free but by ticket only from www.
