Fay Weldon among speakers at Literary Leicester Festival
The prolific feminist author and playwright Fay Weldon will be one of the highlights of this year’s Literary Leicester festival when she appears on stage to talk about the changing landscape of contemporary women’s writing.
Organised by the University of Leicester, the festival is the ninth incarnation of the city’s celebration of the written word and takes place at the University and venues across the city from 16-19 November inclusive.
Closing the festival on a high, Fay will discuss her latest book, Before the War (2016), with Founder Chair of the Contemporary Women’s Writing Association, Professor Mary Eagleton at the Peter Williams Lecture Theatre, Fielding Johnson Building South Wing on 19 November from 6.30pm - 7.30pm. They will reflect on changes in the social and literary landscape since the publication of Fay’s first novel, The Fat Woman’s Joke (1967), almost 50 years ago. This event is the first in an annual series of talks and lectures held in partnership with the Contemporary Women’s Writing Association.
Speaking in advance of the event in an interview with the University press team, she said: “I’m doing a platform interview with Professor Mary Eagleton.
“I don’t know exactly how the evening will go, but we will, I expect, cover changes in women’s writing over the last fifty years – its themes, preoccupations and obsessions, the coming of the internet and subsequent changes in publishing - for good and bad.
“It should also be of interest to writers trying to finish a novel, or even start one, and we’ll most likely cover subjects such as the fall of the editor and the rise of the marketeer.
“But we’ll also include enough personal stuff to keep the evening lively!”