Expanding literary horizons

1. What is so special about the NCLA? 

NCLA is unique in the UK: an exciting, weekly, and free evening of literary conversation, open to all across the university and members of the public. 

We host the most celebrated, avant-garde, and important writers across literary fiction, poetry, script, and screen, sharing and speaking about their work.

2. What are you hoping to bring to the audience with the programme of events? 

Our audience make our events! We hope they will come and enjoy a drink and a snack, and be inspired, enlivened, participate with their own questions, get books signed and find new reading pleasures as they hear from some of the world's most celebrated contemporary writers for free at our unique literary salon.

3. What makes Newcastle University such an ideal place to host such a programme? 

The School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, home of the NCLA, sits within a place of great research, great writing, radical thinking, and education. We’re at the heart of the city, and the country's academic and cultural life. What better place to hear from writers such as Palestinian author Adania Shibli, whose novel ‘Minor Detail’ lays bare the ravages of the Israeli occupation over decades? Or Leila Aboulela, whose career in writing spans fifty years and crosses continents? 

4. What does the NCLA mean to you personally? 

What I love most of all about NCLA is the fact it is free for our audience, and open to the public and to students. When I experience the buzz in our audience before and after events, and the attention they bring as writers present I know NCLA is offering something special and unique throughout the year that isn't available anywhere else in our region.