GLOBAL QUEER LIT
seminars on The politics, aesthetics, and provocations of queer fiction from around the world
Date: Sunday 15th October 2023 -17th December (fortnightly)
Time: 17.00-19.00 GMT (2 hours)
Number of sessions: 6
Location: Online (Zoom)
Cost: 300 GBP / 350 EUR / 380 USD
(limited spaces available)
DESCRIPTION
Global Queer Lit is an international reading seminar designed to facilitate and stimulate a global conversation around literature and queer literary production.
The seminars will consist of a series of discussions on some of the key themes and debates that queer literature from around the world are engaging with and illuminating. Some questions we will be considering:
What are the ways that we can conceive of ‘queer writing’ in a literary context? How does queerness manifest itself in writing and/or reading?
How are queer writers exploring and expanding traditional ideas of literature and genres, of imagining new futures, and in pushing the boundaries of identity, culture, and borders?
How are queer writers exploring the landscape of sex, the body, and desire?
How does queer writing engage with the question of identity (both within the text and with the audience)?
How do ideas around utopianism and dystopias reflect, represent, and maybe even idealise, queer experiences?
In what ways do ghost stories, surrealism, horror, and the gothic appeal to, and work to shape, queer identities?
What are some of the debates, trends and conversations happening in global literary and publishing circles around language, representation, visibility, and access?
Six two-hour seminars will be held every other Sunday, from October 15th to 17th December 2023. Participants will be provided with readings to spark discussion each fortnightly seminar. As facilitators, we’d also very much like your input and suggestions regarding content and themes to be explored.
Seminars:
• Queer Readings/ Reading When Queer (15th October)
• Traversing Identities (29th October)
• Landscapes of the Body and Desire (12th November)
• Utopias and Dystopias (26th November)
• Queer Hauntings, Surrealism, and the Gothic (10th December)
• Queerness and Publishing (17th December)
who are these seminar for?
These seminars are not just meant for writers but also readers who want to engage with contemporary global literature more deeply. We aim to be open, welcoming, and accessible to all—intelligent but not academic, playful and thought-provoking. Participants will be encouraged to bring their own experiences of writing and reading into the forum, if they desire.
If you are a creative practitioner in any field we hope to stimulate and inspire your future work; if you’re a curious reader we want to provide a forum for discussion, expansion, elucidation; the seminars are a space for those who wish to meaningfully connect and collaborate with queer thinkers around the world.
Image by Valentina D’ettorre
Saleem Haddad’s critically acclaimed debut novel, ‘Guapa’ (2016), was awarded a Stonewall Honour and the 2017 Polari First Book Prize. His essays and short stories have appeared in several anthologies, and he also writes for film and television. His directorial debut, Marco, was nominated for the 2019 Iris Prize for ‘Best British Short Film’. His work has been supported by institutions such as Yaddo and the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin.
Michael Langan has worked as a writer, editor, teacher and mentor for over twenty years. His debut novel, Shadow is a Colour as Light Is, was published by Lume Books in September 2019 and he is currently working on his second. His short stories and poetry have been anthologised and published in magazines, journals and online. As Arts Editor of the online LGBTQ+ culture journal, Polari, he wrote about visual arts, film and literature and was a Contributing Editor to the Paris-based Seymour magazine, writing a series of essays about the creative process. He teaches online novel writing courses with the queer writers network, Out on the Page, runs the LGBTQ+ Free Reads Scheme for emerging queer writers in collaboration with The Literary Consultancy, and facilitates creative writing courses and critical reading and writing workshops in Lisbon, where he lives.