28 Mar 2024
Passed
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Pépite Blues
Tickets

Creative Writing Workshop with British-Belgian author Patrick McGuinness

Join us for this Creative Writing Workshop with British-Belgian author Patrick McGuinness.

Patrick McGuinness is a British-Belgian writer and academic. He has authored two novels, a memoir, and two books of poems, which have been awarded numerous prizes. In 2012, his novel The Last Hundred Days received the Wales Book of the Year Award and the Writers’ Guild Award for Fiction. The French translation of this novel, also published in 2012 as Les Cent derniers jours, received the Prix du Premier Roman Étranger and was shortlisted for the Prix Médicis étranger and the Prix Femina étranger. His 2014 book Other People’s Countries won the Duff Cooper Prize and the Welsh Book of the Year Award and his 2020 novel Throw Me to the Wolves won the Encore Award. In November 2023, the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles awarded him the Prix Léo Beeckman, or Espiègle du rayonnement des Lettres belges, for his contribution to the influence of French-language Belgian literature abroad. As Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Oxford, he specializes in 19th, 20th, and 21st century French literature, especially poetry and theatre. He has a special interest in French and Belgian Symbolism and has translated the work of Symbolist poets such as Stéphane Mallarmé.

During his residency at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2023-2024), McGuinness served as keynote speaker at the annual conference of VUB’s Centre for Literary and Intermedial Crossings (CLIC) on “Brussels in the Literary and Artistic Landscape” (24 November 2023). He has been teaching classes to the students of Linguistics and Literary Studies, as well as the doctoral students of CLIC. He is currently writer-in-residence at Passa Porta, the International House of Literature in Brussels.

Practical information

When: Thursday, 28 March 2024, 18:00-20:00
Where: Pépite Blues, Rue Lesbroussart 35, 1050 Elsene/Ixelles
Language: English
Registration: compulsory with a short motivation statement of max. 200 words (max. 20 participants)
For more information, please contact Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Bekers: elisabeth.bekers@vub.be

This workshop takes place within the framework of the weKONEKT.week, in collaboration between the Centre for Literary and Intermedial Crossings (CLIC) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Passa Porta (international house of literature in Brussels) and Pétite Blues (bookshop and cultural centre in Brussels).