The annual City of Literature lecture, delivered in partnership with the University of Nottingham, aims to attract world-leading authors to the city. It provides a platform for leading writers and thinkers to share their ideas and promote Nottingham’s wide-ranging expertise on international literature, literacy, and the wider creative economy. This year, it will also celebrate the start of a four-year programme of investment in Nottingham’s libraries.
Edmund de Waal, who was born in Nottingham, is an internationally renowned ceramic artist with large scale installations at many of the world’s most famous museums, heritage sites and diverse spaces. He became an acclaimed writer after publishing his family memoir, ‘The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance’, in 2010. The book became an international bestseller, winning the 2011 Costa Biography Award, the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, the Galaxy National Book Award for New Writer of the Year, and the Independent Bookshop Week’s ‘Book of the Decade’ in 2016. In 2021, an exhibition based on the memoir took place at The Jewish Museum in New York, designed by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
De Waal published his second book, ‘The White Road’ in 2015 – the same year that he won the Windham-Campbell Prize for non-fiction by Yale University. In 2021, he published ‘Letters to Camondo’, a series of haunting letters written during lockdown, and he was awarded a CBE for his services to art.
With thanks to Nottingham City Council and the University of Nottingham for supporting this event.
*The work of Nottingham City of Literature is supported by Arts Council England.
The Nottingham City of Literature Annual Lecture
Tuesday 24th October at 7pm (doors open at 6pm)
FREE. Please donate if you can.