Ali Smith on Why We Write

Wednesday 06 July 2022 @ 18:30

from £6

Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, University College London

Join us for an evening with Ali Smith and Sarah Wood as they discuss why we write today, politics, fiction and Orwell. There will be a screening of the film Why We Write, a film made in collaboration by Ali and Sarah, a well as discussion of Ali’s Seasonal Quartet, the final instalment of which, Summer, won The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2021, and her new book Companion Piece, an appropriately named companion piece to the Quartet.

Ali Smith was born in Inverness in 1962 and is the author of Summer, which won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2021, as well as Spring, Winter, Autumn, Public library and other stories, How to be both, Shire, Artful, There but for the, The first person and other stories, Girl Meets Boy, The Accidental, The whole story and other stories, Hotel World, Other stories and other stories, Like and Free LoveHotel World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize. The Accidental was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize. How to be both won the Bailey’s Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize and the Costa Novel of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Autumn was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017 and Winter was shortlisted for The Orwell Prize for Books in 2018. Ali Smith lives in Cambridge.

Sarah Wood is an artist filmmaker. Recent films include Beautiful Flowers and How To Grow Them (2021) made for Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature at John Hansard Gallery, Southampton and Here is Elsewhere (2020) for Kettle’s Yard Gallery, Cambridge.

Book event