12 May 17:30 to 19:00
Online via Zoom
Global Majority and Underrepresented Writers’ Programme Lecture
How do we narrate ordinary lives and bring out how extraordinary every life is?
Join acclaimed author Kit de Waal (My Name is Leon (2016), The Best of Everything (2025) in discussion with Professor Elleke Boehmer, to explore how writing can shed light on our tangled lives and help us to understand each other better.
Exploring life-writing, fiction, and the art of narrating ordinary lives, this conversation will appeal to readers, writers, and anyone curious about how storytelling can illuminate the complexity of everyday experience. No prior specialist knowledge or preparation is required.
Speaker Details:
Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among the Irish community of Birmingham in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017. In 2022, it was adapted for television by the BBC. It is now on the GCSE curriculum for schools.
She was named the FutureBook Person of the Year 2019 and is patron of Prisoners Abroad, The Bridport Prize and Writing West Midlands. She is also an ambassador for Wellbeing in the Arts and the Listening Books, on the Advisory Board of Dead Ink Books and a trustee of The Reading Agency. Kit is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Professor in Creative Writing at Leicester University. Her new novel The Best of Everything was released in April 2025.
Professor Elleke Boehmer is Professor of World Literature in English in the Oxford English Faculty, and Executive Director of the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing. She is a Fellow of the Australian Humanities Academy, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and of the Royal Historical Society. She is an Extraordinary Visiting Professor at the University of Pretoria. In 2024, she held an International Visiting Fellowship award at the University of Adelaide, Australia. Elleke has published biography, fiction, history and criticism. Her fiction includes To the Volcano, and Other Stories (2019; commended Elizabeth Jolley Prize),and The Shouting in the Dark (winner of the Olive Schreiner Prize 2018). Her non-fictionincludes Postcolonial Poetics (2018), Indian Arrivals 1870-1915 (2015; winner of the biennial ESSE prize 2016) and Nelson Mandela (2008, 2023).Her work has been widely translated. Ice Shock is her sixth novel.
About OCLW’s Global Majority & Underrepresented Writers’ Programme:
This event is part of OCLW’s flagship Global Majority and Underrepresented Writers’ Programme (GMUWP). The GMUWP supports talented yet historically excluded writers in developing their work, building confidence, and navigating the publishing industry by providing free lectures, workshops, and mentorship. The Programme aims to create a more inclusive writing community, ensuring that life-writing reflects the diverse range of voices that surround us.
Find out more about the Programme here.
Further Details and Contacts:
Join us after the event for a wine reception and book sale by Caper.
This online event is free and open to all. Spaces for this event are limited. Priority access will be given to:
Those identifying as members of the global majority or groups underrepresented in life-writing (see definitions)
Friends of OCLW (join here)
Members of OCLW’s Life-Writing Research Network (join here)
Scholars of OCLW’s Global Majority and Underrepresented Writers’ Programme
OCLW Visiting Scholars
CWAR Fellows
Delivering our lectures costs the Centre around £20 per attendee. If you are able, please consider making a voluntary donation of £5, £10, or £20 to help us cover these costs and keep our events accessible to all. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Registration is required. Registration will close at 14:30 on 12/05/2026.
The event will be recorded and made available on the OCLW website soon after. Registration is not required to access the recording.
Queries regarding this event should be addressed to OCLW Events Manager, Dr Eleri Anona Watson.
12 May 17:30 to 19:00
Online via Zoom
Global Majority and Underrepresented Writers’ Programme Lecture
How do we narrate ordinary lives and bring out how extraordinary every life is?
Join acclaimed author Kit de Waal (My Name is Leon (2016), The Best of Everything (2025) in discussion with Professor Elleke Boehmer, to explore how writing can shed light on our tangled lives and help us to understand each other better.
Exploring life-writing, fiction, and the art of narrating ordinary lives, this conversation will appeal to readers, writers, and anyone curious about how storytelling can illuminate the complexity of everyday experience. No prior specialist knowledge or preparation is required.
Speaker Details:
Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among the Irish community of Birmingham in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017. In 2022, it was adapted for television by the BBC. It is now on the GCSE curriculum for schools.
She was named the FutureBook Person of the Year 2019 and is patron of Prisoners Abroad, The Bridport Prize and Writing West Midlands. She is also an ambassador for Wellbeing in the Arts and the Listening Books, on the Advisory Board of Dead Ink Books and a trustee of The Reading Agency. Kit is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Professor in Creative Writing at Leicester University. Her new novel The Best of Everything was released in April 2025.
Professor Elleke Boehmer is Professor of World Literature in English in the Oxford English Faculty, and Executive Director of the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing. She is a Fellow of the Australian Humanities Academy, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and of the Royal Historical Society. She is an Extraordinary Visiting Professor at the University of Pretoria. In 2024, she held an International Visiting Fellowship award at the University of Adelaide, Australia. Elleke has published biography, fiction, history and criticism. Her fiction includes To the Volcano, and Other Stories (2019; commended Elizabeth Jolley Prize),and The Shouting in the Dark (winner of the Olive Schreiner Prize 2018). Her non-fictionincludes Postcolonial Poetics (2018), Indian Arrivals 1870-1915 (2015; winner of the biennial ESSE prize 2016) and Nelson Mandela (2008, 2023).Her work has been widely translated. Ice Shock is her sixth novel.
About OCLW’s Global Majority & Underrepresented Writers’ Programme:
This event is part of OCLW’s flagship Global Majority and Underrepresented Writers’ Programme (GMUWP). The GMUWP supports talented yet historically excluded writers in developing their work, building confidence, and navigating the publishing industry by providing free lectures, workshops, and mentorship. The Programme aims to create a more inclusive writing community, ensuring that life-writing reflects the diverse range of voices that surround us.
Find out more about the Programme here.
Further Details and Contacts:
Join us after the event for a wine reception and book sale by Caper.
This online event is free and open to all. Spaces for this event are limited. Priority access will be given to:
Those identifying as members of the global majority or groups underrepresented in life-writing (see definitions)
Friends of OCLW (join here)
Members of OCLW’s Life-Writing Research Network (join here)
Scholars of OCLW’s Global Majority and Underrepresented Writers’ Programme
OCLW Visiting Scholars
CWAR Fellows
Delivering our lectures costs the Centre around £20 per attendee. If you are able, please consider making a voluntary donation of £5, £10, or £20 to help us cover these costs and keep our events accessible to all. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Registration is required. Registration will close at 14:30 on 12/05/2026.
The event will be recorded and made available on the OCLW website soon after. Registration is not required to access the recording.
Queries regarding this event should be addressed to OCLW Events Manager, Dr Eleri Anona Watson.
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