Students Take Part in Prestigious Post-War Project

 

Susie Campbell, Patrick Toland and Mariah Whelan, are alumni of the Master's in Creative Writing; Sue Zatland, is an alumna of the Diploma in Creative Writing. All four gave superb readings of poems generated by their residences at a special event held in the chapel at Harris Manchester College, Oxford on 5th June - 'A Crack of Light'.

 

Their work was stimulated over several months by attendance at symposia and workshops including at the Pitt Rivers Museum. A fifth student, Dahmicca Wright, had a placement with the series as part of her studies on the Oxford University Creative Writing MSt.

 

The series has brought together an international group of academics, poets, politicians, artists, musicians and leading figures from different fields in an exploration of how we, as individuals and as the 'public',  view commemoration, reconstruction, reconciliation and post war trauma.

 

The series was jointly organised by Professor Kate McLoughlin and Dr. Catherine Gilbert of Harris Manchester College, Oxford and Dr. Niall Munro of Oxford Brookes University.

 

Tutor for Poetry, Jenny Lewis, who has taught all four students on the MSt. and Diploma, worked with the organisers to set up the residencies and placement and was involved with the series at an early stage through her book about the Mesopotamian Campaign of the First World War, Taking Mesopotamia (Oxford Poets/ Carcanet 2014). Senior Tutor for Poetry, Jane Draycott, joined Jenny at the reading to hear the students' work and celebrate the successful outcome.