The winner of the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction, Maggie O’Farrell, is doing a talk at the Irish Cultural Centre, or rather online, for the ICC, on 29 April. She’ll be discussing her winning novel, Hamnet, an imagined biography of Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, who died at the age of 11. O’Farrell had been convinced that … Continue reading “Online Talk about “Hamnet” by Maggie O’Farrell”
The longlist has been announced for Britain’s Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021, which will be awarded in July. The prize was created after the 1991 Booker shortlist contained no books by women writers. To celebrate its 25th year, readers voted for a “winner of winners”: Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, … Continue reading “Women’s Prize Book News”
The Personal History of David Copperfield is far from the first adaptation of Charles Dickens’ semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel. But Armando Iannucci has given the story a very new feel, while keeping Dickens’ humour and playing with that idea of autobiography and the art of inventing oneself through the act of writing. Iannucci is known for … Continue reading “David Copperfield: Dickens for the 21st Century”
How have women been portrayed in U.S. TV series in the past, and how has that been changing since #MeToo? That’s the topic of an online talk from the Institut Franco-Américain in Rennes on 23 March. Anaïs Le Fèvre-Berthelot from Rennes 2 University will take a look back at some significant female characters in the … Continue reading “A History of Women in U.S. TV Series”
Her books were once considered so scandalous that they were banned in Ireland, but at age 90, The Country Girls author Edna O’Brien received the honour of being declared a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by French Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot on 7 March. O’Brien has been prolific since the first of … Continue reading “Irish Author Edna O’Brien Honoured”
Here at Speakeasy News, we have been following the career of Chloé Zhao since her first film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, was featured at the Deauville and Cannes festivals back in 2015. So we were delighted to hear that she was the first Asian woman, and only second woman, to win Best Director at … Continue reading “Golden Globes 2021: Congratulations Chloé Zhao!”
South African photographer Zanele Muholi describes themself as a visual activist. For the last 20 years, Muholi has explored the depiction of black women and the LGBTQIA+ community. Muholi’s photos are included in several modern art collections around the world and there is a currently a major exhibition of their work at Tate Modern in … Continue reading “Zanele Muholi: Visual Activism”
Discover films, class visits and talks on New Orleans, Louisiana and Southern literature thanks to the Travelling Film Festival and the Institut Franco-Américan in Rennes. New Orleans is the star of this year’s festival, which is going ahead despite cinemas being closed. In fact, it’s even being extended for classes in Ile-et-Vilaine: film showings and … Continue reading “Discover Louisiana”
The American Library in Paris is continuing to run “evening with an author” events despite the curfew. And the advantage is you can tune in for free from anywhere, and there’s no limit on numbers. On 16 February, it will feature an interview with Pulitzer-prizewinning historian Fredrik Logevall on his biography of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. … Continue reading “Online Talk About President Kennedy”
The judges of this year’s Costa Book Awards in the UK chose two writers from the Caribbean island nation Trinidad and Tobago as winners in the best novel, best first novel and book of the year categories. Monique Roffey won both the novel and the overall book of the year category for The Mermaid of … Continue reading “Tale of the Sea from Trinidad”
