Don’t forget to book tickets to the following events coming up at Sheffield’s annual Off The Shelf festival of words, which is sponsored by the University.
Alan Johnson MP and author, Saturday 25 October at 7pm in the Pennine Theatre, City Campus.
One of Britain’s best loved public figures delivers another fascinating chapter in his life story. In Please Mr Postman – the sequel to Sunday Times best seller This Boy – Alan Johnson continues his memoirs as an 18 year old husband, father and postman in 70s Slough. With honesty, humour and genuine emotion Johnson evokes a very different Britain as he journeys into the union and the start of his political career. Later to become a longstanding MP for Hull and three times secretary of state, Alan Johnson has recently won two literary awards – the Orwell Prize and the Ondaatje prize.
A day-long celebration of the work of Dylan Thomas – various times and locations, Saturday 1 November
Join us in a day long centenary celebration for the great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.
It includes a writing workshop, film, discussion, Welsh music and of course poetry and drink…You can buy for one session or the whole day.
We hope To Begin at the Beginning…will end by giving an insight into the genius of this inspiring poet’s life and work.
Dawn – Shedloads of Work
Dylan’s work was imbued with a strong sense of place. Our digital writing project asked writers to shows the places that inspire them. See where they write and enjoy their work at
www.shedloadsofwork.com
10am -12 noon To Begin at the Beginning: a Creative Writing Workshop with John Milne Jackson Room, 1st Floor, Central Library
Tickets £5/£4 (concessions)
You will develop the beginnings (and possibly endings) of a short story or a script, forms frequented by Dylan Thomas. Please bring a small object or souvenir which is significant to you and evokes a particular sense of place or local culture.
John Milne has written over a hundred hours of television and a dozen novels. He is a Principal Lecturer in Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University.
11am – 12 noon John Goodby poetry reading/discussion – Hubs
Tickets £5/£4 (concessions) Part of Special Package.
John Goodby, a world authority on Dylan Thomas will be reading selectively from The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas: A New Centenary Edition, providing insights into the process of collecting and editing Thomas’s work as well as expanding on the meanings of the poems.
12.15 -1.15pm Optional Lunch
(Ploughmans with Welsh cheese) plus live entertainment with Sheffield writers Rony Robinson and Sally Goldsmith with Yorkshire takes on Dylan in song, poetry, script and story.
Lunch must be booked by Sat 25 Oct – call 0114 273 4716. Cost is £7 For food only – no drinks included. Sheffield Tap
1.30pm – 4pm Film Screening of Under Milk Wood. Showroom Cinema
Tickets £8/£8.50 (concessions) Part of Special Package
A rare chance to see Under Milk Wood, the 1972 British film on the big screen. The film directed by Andrew Sinclair, based on the 1954 radio play by Thomas, stars legendary cinema icons Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O’Toole followed by Q&A with director Andrew Sinclair.
4.30 – 6pm – Understanding Dylan Thomas: Symposium on the work of Dylan Thomas with Chris Wigginton, John Goodby and Charles Mundye. The Hubs
Tickets £5/£4 (concessions) Part of Special Package
A symposium focussing on the breadth of Thomas’s work – from poetry, films, short stories and drama – through the analysis, discussion and examination of specific examples from the range of Thomas’s writing. Led by Chris Wigginton, Deputy Dean and Professor at Sheffield Hallam University, Hallam University lecturer Charles Mundye and John Goodby, a leading expert on Thomas.
6.30 – 7.45pm – Gillian Clark and DnA Upper Chapel
Tickets £7/£5 (concessions) Part of the Special Package
Savour the sublime words and music of Wales with the National Poet of Wales and two outstanding Welsh musicians.
Gillian Clarke is one of the central figures in contemporary Welsh poetry, the third to take up the post of National Poet of Wales. Her own poems have achieved widespread critical and popular acclaim and the Welsh landscape is a shaping force in her work. Gillian’s reading will feature her own work as well as the premiere of a newly commissioned piece for Off the Shelf Festival capturing the spirit of Dylan Thomas and Wales for Sheffield. DnA are an acclaimed mother-and-daughter duo from Swansea, Wales who enjoy international reputations for their harp and fiddle music, both traditional and new. They have been nominated for Welsh album of the year.