spacer

Search form

Main menu

  • Who We Are
  • How We Work
  • Our History
  • Mission & Vision
  • Facts & Figures
  • Our Partners
  • Campuses & Venues
  • News
    • Three new books to be launched at University
  • Working For Us
  • Events

Three new books to be launched at University

Thu, 01/11/2012 - 16:51 -- kcleak

Two new novels and an acclaimed book of poems are to be launched at the University of Chichester in November as the Department of English & Creative Writing lights up the winter nights with a season of free literary events, open to both the public and members of the University.

The first of the readings, on Wednesday, November 14th (Room E124 5.15-6.30pm) will feature excerpts from The Book of Guardians (Salt Publishing), a new novel by Derek Neale, who is currently one of the University's External Examiners. The novel focuses on the final case of a detective who finds missing fathers for a living.

Derek says: “The novel grew from an image – of a shed at dusk with birdsong rising from an adjacent holly tree, a freshly watered seed tray by the shed’s window. That’s the key, something new growing from something dusty and overgrown.”

This will be followed on Monday, November 19th (Cloisters Chamber, 5.15-6.30pm) by the launch of the novel, 'Variable Stars' (Arbuthnot Books), written by Christina Koning, who currently helps Chichester students as part of her role as a fellow with the Royal Literary Fund.  Variable Stars is a story of love and astronomy; of music and silence; of secrets and truth-telling; of world-changing discoveries, and unrequited desire.

Variable Stars was described by the novelist Fay Weldon as “a beautifully and carefully written book, well researched and imaginative, about a fascinating woman, and the tension, even then, that existed between a woman’s emotional life and her ‘career’”.

The season concludes on November 26th (Cloisters Chamber, 5.15-6.30pm) when Stephanie Norgate, Reader in Creative Writing and convenor of the University's MA programme in Creative Writing, officially launches her acclaimed new poetry collection The Blue Den (Bloodaxe). The collection is the follow-up to her highly successful first full-length collection, The Hidden River (also published by Bloodaxe), which was shortlisted for two major poetry awards – the Forward First Collection Prize and the Jerwood Aldeburgh Prize.

The Blue Den has met with similar acclaim, and was described by the poet and novelist Helen Dunmore as possessing "a brooding, magnetism which draws us into a drowned ship, a slow-worm's narrow skull or the hand-clasp of an orang-utan. The beauty of imagery and rhythm is matched by the subtlety of the poet's thought.'

All three events will include opportunities for readers to ask the writers questions and buy signed copies of their books.

Department: 
English and Creative Writing
gipoco.com is neither affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its contents. This is a safe-cache copy of the original web site.