The Centre supports a programme of readings by writers, research seminars, workshops, and conferences.
The CMCW is pleased to support the annual F.T. Prince Lecture, which was established in honour of the poet and scholar F.T. Prince, who was one of Southampton's first English professors. Invited speakers explore new directions in literary studies, drawing on the English department's wide range of intellectual interests.
Led by our own creative writing lecturers, Writers in Conversation is a reading series which features some of today’s best fiction writers, poets, non-fiction writers and playwrights. Each semester, we invite writers read from their work and talk about their writing - how characters take shape, where ideas come from. Each semester, we also feature a writer from our Creative Writing team, allowing students as well as members of the Southampton community to hear our lecturers talk about their own work. Video-recordings of previous sessions are available on our YouTube channel. Read more on the Writers in Conversation blog.
Entropics is an experimental writing series, dedicated to introducing audiences to innovative and radical literatures of the now. Typically, the invited writer gives two performances over the course of the night, which also includes an open public discussion. Everyone is very welcome to attend, and to contribute to a lively conversation with the guest writer, hosted by Sarah Hayden. These performances take place off-campus, in Southampton city centre. Thanks to the generosity of the Education Enhancement Fund and the support of the Department of English, all events are free. Poets invited in recent years have included Verity Spott, Lila Matsumoto, Samantha Walton, Samuel Solomon, Sophie Robinson, Maggie O’Sullivan, Hollie Pester, Iain Morrison, Nat Raha, Linus Slug, Redell Olsen, Jay Bernard, Nisha Ramayya, Peter Manson, Trevor Joyce and Sophie Seita. You can read interviews with these poets on the Entropics blog
The Centre for Modern and Contemporary Writing runs an annual Research Study Day with critical papers and creative readings by staff and student members. Recent themes have included ‘Relation’ (2020), ‘Friction’ (2019), ‘Immediacy (2018), ‘Creativity and Serendipity’ (2017), ‘Nature/Nurture’ (2015), ‘Gifts and Debts’ (2014) and ‘A Return to History’ (2013).