The Speaking Voice; the Written Word: Norman Nicholson and Performance
Sat 28 Sep 10.30am-5.30pm
Venue: University of Cumbria, Ambleside Campus
Address: Rydal Road, Ambleside, LA22 9BB
Poetry enthusiasts, academics and writers from all over Cumbria and beyond will gather in Ambleside on September 28th to discuss the work of the noted Millom poet Norman Nicholson.
The day-long Symposium is organised by the Norman Nicholson Society in collaboration with the University of Cumbria. It will be hosted at the university’s Ambleside campus by Associate Professor Penny Bradshaw, programme leader for their MA in Literature, Romanticism and the English Lake District.
Norman Nicholson (1914-1987) was a Cumbrian poet, dramatist and prose writer, known for his environmental and ecological interests, his focus on locality, his lively topographical writings, and his deeply held spiritual and social concerns. He was the first-ever winner of the Heinemann Award for his debut collection Five Rivers (1944).
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature shortly after, at the comparatively young age of 31. He received many other awards in his lifetime, including the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry (1977), several honorary degrees, and the OBE for services to literature (1981). In recent years there has been something of a revival of his reputation and his work is the subject of a growing number of academic theses.
The theme for this year’s Symposium is ‘The Speaking Voice; the Written Word: Norman Nicholson and Performance’. Speakers will examine Nicholson’s emphasis on speakable words, whether in poetry, drama, or prose as well as his radio and television work.
An exciting element of this Symposium will be the chance to hear some of Nicholson’s work in performance including a recording of A Wall Walks Slowly: The Sound of Cumbria, an award-winning BBC Radio programme produced in 1977 by Desmond Briscoe, founder of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The programme combines Nicholson’s poetry with a Cumbrian soundscape that includes interviews with local people and the atmospheric sounds of nature.
Speakers this year include Professor Jonathan Pitches of the University of Leeds, Dr Christopher Donaldson of the University of Lancaster, Dr Martyn Halsall, former poet-in-residence at Carlisle Cathedral, and Andrew F. Wilson, the author of an unpublished bibliographical study of Nicholson’s work.
Final registration deadline is Thursday September 12th.
