Novelist Ali Smith to speak at annual Birkbeck Man Booker event
Man Booker 2014 nominee to discuss her book, How to Be Both
Writer Ali Smith will speak about her Man Booker Prize 2014 nominated novel, the critically acclaimed How to be both, at a flagship annual event at Birkbeck in November.
The Scottish novelist will be in conversation with the College’s Professor Russell Celyn Jones for this year’s Man Booker at Birkbeck event, held at Friends House on Monday, November 16. Across the course of the evening event, Prof Jones and Ms Smith will discuss the novel, its genesis, themes and positive reception in critic and reader circles alike.
An exploration of art's versatility, How to Be Both, is a fast-moving genre-bending novel, which twists together two tales of love and injustice, separated by five centuries. The book – which was released last year – won the 2014 Goldsmiths Prize, the Novel Award in the 2014 Costa Book Awards and the 2015 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. It was one of the six shortlisted novels for the 2014 Man Booker Prize.
Now in its sixth year, the Man Booker at Birkbeck event offers students, alumni and staff the opportunity to hear luminaries of the literary world discussing their works in their own words. Previous speakers at the annual event include Hilary Mantel (author of 2012 Man Booker Prize-winning novel Bring up the Bodies), Sarah Waters (author of Man Booker-shortlisted novels Fingersmith, The Night Watch and The Little Stranger) and Kazuo Ishiguro (author of the 2005 Man Booker shortlisted novel Never Let Me Go).
In addition to How to Be Both, Ali Smith has penned more than six novels, including Hotel World, The Accidental, Girl Meets Boy, and Artful. As in previous years, the 2015 Man Booker at Birkbeck event will also give audience members the chance to pitch their own questions to Ms Smith.
Prof Celyn Jones said: “Ali Smith is one of the most formally inventive of British writers working today...or yesterday, or tomorrow. Under her lens time is negotiable, death is surveillance and art is life lived again.”
Man Booker at Birkbeck 2015, featuring Ali Smith will be held on Monday 16 November 2015, 6pm-7.30pm at Friends’ House, 173 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ. Open to Birkbeck students, staff and alumni, the event is free to attend but places are limited, so booking is essential.
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The event is supported by Birkbeck, University of London and the Booker Prize Foundation
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- Man Booker at Birkbeck 2015, featuring Ali Smith (open to staff, students and alumni)
- Man Booker at Birkbeck
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