Creative duo to celebrate published works

Two writers from Edge Hill University are celebrating a number of their books being published with a special launch event.

Professor Robert Sheppard and Senior Lecturer Daniele Pantano have published four books and two pamphlets between them in the last few months.

To mark these remarkable achievements the successful duo, who both teach Creative Writing within the English and History Department at Edge Hill, will be launching their published works with two short readings and a question and answer session on Thursday 5^th May.

George Talbot, Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said: "It is extremely unusual to have two academics have a number of books published within such a short space of time and they are a real inspiration to our students.

"This event provides a great opportunity to listen to the talented pair read from their works, explain their ideas and give advice to aspiring writers who are looking to have their work published within such a competitive industry. I'd urge people to come along to share their experiences and to celebrate their successes."

Professor Robert Sheppard is Programme Leader of the MA Creative Writing course and has published a new book of poems, Berlin Bursts. Themes covered include the troubled history of Berlin, Riga and other places ravaged through time. There are poems about poems and a sequence about the doomed attempt to create a hologram poet. His critical book When Bad Times Made for Good Poetry is a history of alternative British poetry and deals with major figures like Iain Sinclair, Tom Raworth and Maggie O'Sullivan.

Senior Lecturer Daniele Pantano is the Programme Leader for the BA Creative Writing programme and has published The Oldest Hands in the World, a book of poems about exile, translingualism and writing his way home. His other book, The Possible Is Monstrous, is a collection of poems in English translation by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, who is seen not only as the most prominent Swiss novelist, playwright and essayist of the twentieth century but as one of the most influential authors of modern literature.

They both also have pamphlets out from the enterprising Knives Forks and Spoons Press.  Robert's book, The Given, is an anti-autobiography, telling his life via events in his diary he cannot remember and others that he'd rather forget. Daniele's book, Mass Graves (XIX-XXII), is an excerpt from a new collection of poems he is currently writing that examines the lives, events and connections between an unknown Swiss poet and the savage murder of one of Egon Schiele's young girls.

The event, which is free to attend, starts at 5.30pm in room B005 of the Business and Law building on the Ormskirk campus. Their books will also be available to purchase on the night.