Monday, February 08, 2010

Fiction of Development: Event at LSE

This is a slightly crazy week full of commitments that I obviously did not realise I was making. As a result, this is a very short post.  However, if you are in London, it may be a useful one.

I am participating in a panel discussion on Fiction of Development at the LSE Literary Festival 2010. The panel is scheduled for Friday evening and is free, although you do have to book tickets in advance. If my fiction, or indeed the issue of socially and politically engaged fiction interests you, please do come around.

The panel includes Giles Foden of the Last King of Scotland fame, the Malawian poet Jack Mpanje and David Lewis who started off this conversation with his paper (written with Dennis Rodgers and Michael Woolcock) on fiction and development.

I am looking forward to the panel for personal and professional reasons. On a personal front, because LSE is sister's old alma mater and I have a lot of friends who studied there. So it holds all sorts of great memories. Professionally, I am pleased to be part of a discussion that needs to take place - that fiction often sheds light on issues of development, social change and conflict that is perhaps not take as seriously in academic circles.

Perhaps this panel will be an initial step towards fostering a dialogue between novelists and social scientists.

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