May
#EnglishCreates Life Long Learning Month
Lifelong learning and the study of English
Lifelong learning and the study of English Richard J. Jones (The Open University) ‘Literature’, says David Hume towards the end of the eighteenth century, ‘has been the ruling passion…
Lifelong Learning and English: articles to explore
Lifelong Learning and English: articles to explore Richard J. Jones (The Open University) The World Health Organisation reports that people are living longer. According to its findings, in…
Digital literacies: a lifelong endeavour
Digital literacies: a lifelong endeavour Caroline Tagg and Korina Giaxoglou (The Open University) In our digitally connected world, staying on top of the latest technologies is a lifelong…
Coastlines
Coastlines Edward Hogan (The Open University) For the last few years, writers and researchers in the department of English and Creative Writing at the Open University have been undertaking…
Will we still be reading English literature in the future?
Will we still be reading English literature in the future? Shafquat Towheed (The Open University) Is reading in danger? We are currently in the midst of the National…
Open University students reflect on studying English
Open University students reflect on studying English Richard J. Jones (The Open University) At The Open University, students of different ages and backgrounds study English Literature, Creative Writing, or…
Oracy: a bridge between school learning and the wider world
Oracy: a bridge between school learning and the wider world Topsy Page (Oracy Cambridge) Exploratory talk is central to learning, and critical in the study of language and literature.…
The Writers’ Nook
The Writers’ Nook The Writers’ Nook is a corner of a café at the University Hospital of North Tees. It is part of a project to look at how…
How a ‘geography of ideas’ can help us reimagine English heritage
How a ‘geography of ideas’ can help us reimagine English heritage Philip Seargeant (The Open University) There used to be a pub on the corner of Downing Street.…
Reflections on lifelong learning
Reflections on lifelong learning Richard J. Jones (The Open University) Recently, I met a professor of eighteenth-century literature, who had been teaching for over fifty years. I was pleased to…
April
#EnglishCreates Varieties of English Month
Books that Matter: Orientalism by Edward Said
Nabila Ahmed BA English, Goldsmiths, University of London When I began studying English, I thought I loved literature for its beauty: for Shakespeare’s language, for the drama of tragedy,…
Books That Matter: Angels in America by Tony Kushner
Lee Mayer BA English with Creative Writing, Goldsmiths, University of London I bought my copy of Angels in America at the National Theatre Bookshop shortly after I…
Books That Matter: White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Yasmina Snyder BA English with Creative Writing, Goldsmiths, University of London I find myself returning annually to Janet Fitch’s White Oleander, a novel about a young protagonist, Astrid,…
Books That Matter: Feluda by Satyagit Ray
Ira Bhattacharjee BA English with Creative Writing, Goldsmiths, University of London I first encountered the works of Satyajit Ray as a child who mostly consumed English authors and…
Books That Matter: The Deep by Rivers Solomon
Maria-Sabina De Souza Goldsmiths, University of London, BA English with Creative Writing The Deep by Rivers Solomon is a beautifully written novella that’s driven by the traumatic history…
Books That Matter: Just Kids by Patti Smith
Shiksha Thard Goldsmiths, University of London, BA Fine Arts This book has changed my perspective on being an artist. I was introduced to Patti Smith by my…
Diverse literature in schools in Wales and the wider UK
Diverse literature in schools in Wales and the wider UK By Dr Sarah Olive, Communication and Culture, Aston University English creates new readers. English also creates resources…
Diverse literature in schools 2
‘Diverse literature in schools in Wales and the wider UK’ Dr Sarah Olive, Communication and Culture, Aston University (cont…) However, much existing work in the UK focuses…
Diverse literature in schools 3
Diverse literature in schools in Wales and the wider UK By Dr Sarah Olive, Communication and Culture, Aston University (cont…) Our research shows that teachers in Wales are motivated…
The ‘art form’ of Elizabeth Bishop’s letters
Jonathan Ellis is Reader in American Literature at the University of Sheffield, where he has taught for over 20 years. Most of my academic career has focused on the…
Transcribing Elizabeth Bishop
Kat Ebbs is Trusts and Foundations Officer for Sheffield Hospitals Charity. She holds a BA and MA in English Literature from the University of Sheffield. I loved being involved…
Encountering Elizabeth Bishop’s voice
Grace Hogg holds a BA and MA in English Literature from the University of Sheffield. Working on Elizabeth Bishop’s Postcards under the guidance of Dr Jonathan Ellis was one…
(re)-encountering multiple ideations of home through Elizabeth Bishop
James Howell is an AHRC-funded PhD student at the University of Sheffield. Confined to my childhood bedroom, the small matter of a global pandemic upending the usual university experience,…
The subtle nuances and humour in Elizabeth Bishop’s visual art and writing
Miriam Levy was employed as an Editorial Assistant last summer. She recently completed a BA degree in English Literature at the University of Sheffield. Dr Jonathan Ellis and Professor…
March
#EnglishCreates Communities Month
Literature and community
Professor Nicky Marsh (University of Southampton) In this blog Professor Nicky Marsh, from the University of Southampton, introduces March’s theme of ‘communities’. There are as many forms of community as…
Practicality and Magic: Mentoring, Poetry, and Community Practice
Professor Will May (University of Southampton) reflects on the stories that poets tell about the people who make them poets. Will’s AHRC Fellowship, Invisible Mentors, explored the role,…
Subtle and Simple Surprises: reflections on co-creating a ‘Living Glossary’ for a community of practice.
In this blog Professor Stephanie Jones discusses the process of creating a vocabulary for shaping a community that crosses disciplines and sectors: considered words, she suggests, are vital for…
How does literary practice allow us to think about the ‘pride in place’ agenda?
How does literary practice allow us to think about the ‘pride in place’ agenda? What can poetry offer to policy makers? Professor Nicky Marsh (University of Southampton) The AHRC-funded Feeling…
Sticking together: collage as a community listening praxis
Sticking together: collage as a community listening praxis Isaac Fraveshi – PhD student, poet, and artist at the Southampton Institute of Arts and Humanities – has worked with Feeling…
Wales’ National Writing Squad: Building a community of young writers
Wales’ National Writing Squad: Building a community of young writers This blog is from Dr Aiysha Jahan, a writer and lecturer in Creative Writing at Cardiff University in Wales.…
Poetic social infrastructure: Foregrounding relational, everyday heritage through poetry
Dr Joseph Owen is a senior researcher on the AHRC And Towns projects, a specialist policy officer for Public Policy | Southampton and the Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities and a critic of…
Experts in the Community
Experts in the Community Dr Joanna Nissel is a poet and Operations Lead at Bath Spa University’s The Story Society, an interdisciplinary research centre exploring the use of Story…
February
#EnglishCreates Critical Reading Month
A Reading List on Reading.
Professor Ben Davies (University of Southern Denmark) A Reading List on Reading. Much of my recent research focuses on the relations between reading, readers, and time use, both inside and…
‘Death of Reading’?: There’s no real war between print and digital media
Dr JT Welsch (University of York) I keep reading that reading is a dying pastime. Every day, a new study shames our shrinking attention spans, or a professor moans that…
Reading Matters: Middlemarch
Professor Gail Marshall (University of Reading) Reading Matters: Middlemarch The material book I am exceptionally lucky to have on my shelves a first edition of Middlemarch, the very generous…
Two books changed my life.
Dr Rebecca Fisher (English Association) Two books changed my life. As a teenager, I read A. S. Byatt’s The Virgin in the Garden, and something fundamental shifted in the way books…
Really reading
Professor Jennifer Cooke (Loughborough University) We live in what’s called an ‘attention economy’: Insta, YouTube, TikTok and all the other sites want our eyes on them. They want our attention.…
Reading is a very complex word
Professor Robert Eaglestone (Royal Holloway University of London) Reading is a very complex word. In educational discourse, it’s used in three ways which are overlapping but can, irritatingly, work against each…
January
#EnglishCreates Environment Month
ENGLISH AND THE ENVIRONMENT
ENGLISH AND THE ENVIRONMENT Professor Ralph Pite, Twentieth Century Poetry and Romantic Period writing (University of Bristol) The word ‘January’ is from the Roman god, Janus – god…
THE GRAPHS DON’T WORK
THE GRAPHS DON’T WORK Professor Ralph Pite, Twentieth Century Poetry and Romantic Period writing (University of Bristol) Climate change is all about numbers: 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming; 425…
#EnglishCreates: Futures 2026
The English Creates campaign kicks off again for 2026 with an emphasis on futures and the way in which English (in all its forms and disciplines) engages with a…
Kite-flying in the Anthropocene
By Michael Malay Michael Malay’s Late Light won the Wainwright Prize in 2024. Here, Michael introduces this book ‘about falling in love with vanishing things’: Instagram And…
Rewilding and / or Farming
By Hannah Green Environmentalism focussed to start with on wilderness – on protecting areas still untouched by human activity. That was always questionable: describing somewhere as ‘untouched’ is a…
IMAGINING THE NATURAL WORLD
By Caroline Lucas Caroline Lucas, Britain’s first Green MP and, since 2025, the first Professor of Practice in Environmental Sustainability at the University of Sussex, says why English…
Literature and the Industrial Revolution
Eco-anxiety is connected to feelings of isolation: not only a sense of disconnect from the vanishing natural world but also in terms of time. The future seems less and…
Listening to the natural world and hearing how it used to sound.
Listening to the natural world and hearing how it used to sound. By Francesca Mackenney and Jamie Castell The negative effects of noise on mental as well as physical…
What Next? What Now? – Some Ideas for Reading and Taking Steps
What Next? What Now? – Some Ideas for Reading and Taking Steps By Ralph Pite (ralph.pite@bristol.ac.uk) Here are… Five Top Sixes (and a Last Hurrah) I hope they may…
Literary Studies and the Seabed
Literary Studies and the Seabed Dr Laurence Publicover, Associate Professor in Literature and Oceanic Studies (University of Bristol) ‘Unless you are given to chronic anxiety or suffer from…
The Sea, the Sea! – 1
The Sea, the Sea! – 1 Professor Ralph Pite, Twentieth Century Poetry and Romantic Period writing (University of Bristol) ‘The river is within us, the sea is all…
The Sea, The Sea – 2: Close Reading on the Beach
The Sea, The Sea – 2: Close Reading on the Beach Dr Rachel Murray, Literature and the Environment (University of Bristol) Something that makes English studies distinctive is…
VENTURING OUT – 1
VENTURING OUT – 1 Professor Ralph Pite, Twentieth Century Poetry and Romantic Period writing (University of Bristol) We were teaching an undergraduate course, ‘Writing the Anthropocene’, and reading…
VENTURING OUT – 2
VENTURING OUT – 2 Professor Ralph Pite, Twentieth Century Poetry and Romantic Period writing (University of Bristol) This is the RSPB reserve at Ham Wall in Somerset…
Venturing Out – 3
By Ralph Pite (University of Bristol) My first attempts to bring the environment into my teaching of English turned out to be moves away – into nature reserves miles…
‘Voices of the Future’ – teaching on treescapes
‘Voices of the Future’ – teaching on treescapes Dr David Cooper & Professor Kate Pahl, Place Writing (Manchester Metropolitan University) It’s widely recognised how important trees are, not only globally…
Teaching It – 1: English Is A Gift
Teaching It – 1: English Is A Gift Sarah Dukes, English teacher at The Chase School, Malvern, Worcestershire Sarah Dukes is an English teacher at The Chase School,…