ESRC Poetry Seminar Series Success

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we have won ESRC money to hold a series of seminars at the Universities of Greenwich, Exeter and Leicester on poetry in schools!

Great news. We have a number of high profile partcipants from the world of poetry, from both the UK and abroad. It will be an excellent opportunity to get together to look for ways to develop poetry in schools and beyond.

Goodbye Old Room

I have now returned from a lovely restful holiday in Italy and have spent the day clearing my study room in the famous Fisher Tower. I could have almost done with a shovel to get through the tons of paper and old over-head projector slides - hours of prep. for lectures.

Everything is in boxes and ready to go.

Monday was spent in London meeting with Pie Corbett and Jonathon Rooke discussing plans for a series of conferences around the country on the subject of writing with Pie and me as the key notes. We met in the British Library and Pie was very keen to show me the Beowulf manuscript which is on display. Looks like the conferences will begin in Winchester in March 2011. We had a very interesting discussion about teaching writing - tuning into what we each believed about the subject - general consensus was reached in the end.

Book Submitted: Holiday Time

Well, 'Literacy on the Left: Reform and Revolution' is 'finished'. I say 'finished', but I expect to be editorially advised how to improve it after the publishers have read it. Overall I'm pleased, but I do need some advice from the experts as to how to make it even better. after all, this is the first single authored 'big' book I've written.

I have a chapter to write before the end of August on poetry and some more to do on an edited book I'm putting together with colleagues. Then, I'll have the work to do on 'Literacy on the left'. Having submitted the book, despite the inevitable extra bits I will have to do, I feel that it is a major project moving towards the exit. Phew, what an experience it has been!!

Great news about the ESRC Seminar series on Poetry that I bid for with two colleagues from other Universities - We won the bid!! I'm hoping that much will come from it in terms of publishing and perhaps more money for research.

Yes, research in real classrooms after the academic world of literacy on the left - bliss.

Now for a holiday in wonderful Italy...