UCL partners on the second edition of the European Writers’ Festival

Organised by the European Union National Institutes of Culture (EUNIC) London in partnership with the European Literature Network and the British Library, and with the support of the Delegation of the European Union to the United Kingdom and the European Parliament Liaison Office in the United Kingdom, the European Writers' Festival was once again curated by former BBC journalist Rosie Goldsmith, director of the European Literature Network.  

UCL’s participation in the festival was part of its ongoing European Literary Map of London project and involved UCL academics Dr Uta Staiger (Executive Director of the European Institute) and Dr Tim Beasley-Murray (Associate Professor of European Thought and Culture) chairing panels on Change and Conflict and Transforming Historical Narratives. The former considered how war and conflict shape authors’ identities, ways of thinking and writing, while the latter delved into the intersection between history and European literature, raising questions about how historical memory shapes literary narratives and discussing innovative new approaches to re-imagining history beyond the ‘Great Man’ interpretative tradition.

Additionally, BA Creative Arts and Humanities students Dora Fidler and Kay Lynn Er gained valuable work experience by providing communications and events management support throughout the weekend.  

UCL's partnership with the European Writers’ Festival, brokered by UCL European Institute’s Head of Policy & Partnerships Lucy Shackleton, has also underpinned the establishment of a European Literary Map of London Writer in Residence Programme, which has allowed the Institute to host writers Joanna Elmy and Larisa Faber this Spring. Both Joanna and Larisa were speakers at the European Writers’ Festival, taking part in the Change and Conflict and the New Europeans of the Future panels respectively.  

As a further contribution to the Festival, UCL offered a multilingual guided wander through Bloomsbury on Friday 17 May, inspired by the European Literary Map of London, to writers participating in the Festival. Beginning at the British Library, members of the UCL Community, the European Literary Map of London Project team and Writers-in-Residence Joanna Elmy and Larisa Faber, read entries aloud, exploring the city through the eyes of writers such as Olumide Popoola, Pavel Vilikovsky and Hans-Christian Andersen. 

The walk concluded at the Lost & Found: Mapping European Literary London Exhibition in UCL’s South Cloisters, which will close on 31 May after a seven month run.