{"id":13,"date":"2024-12-05T11:40:11","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T11:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital-humanities.open.ac.uk\/letters2025\/?page_id=13"},"modified":"2025-11-10T09:11:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T09:11:43","slug":"programme","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/digital-humanities.open.ac.uk\/letters2025\/programme\/","title":{"rendered":"Programme and registration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2018Letters and Literature 1500-2025: Histories, Forms, Communities\u2019<\/strong><\/a> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Open University: 5, 6, 7 November 2025<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

All times are GMT. Please click the ‘register here’ link under each panel title to sign up. To help you with your choice of sessions, you’ll find abstracts and biographies, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We very much look forward to welcoming you. Attendees are asked that all contributions are expressed respectfully and professionally at this event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DAY ONE: Wednesday 5th<\/sup> November<\/span> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 1<\/strong> 0935 \u2013 1040<\/strong> Welcome and opening remarks from the conference director + Early-Modern Humanists and Letters<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Jonathan Gibson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the first panel begins, Prof Sara Haslam, director of the conference, will deliver opening remarks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download them here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

opening_remarks_final2<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Halszka Lele\u0144 (University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland): Voice, Faith, and Dialogic Poetics in Thomas More\u2019s Prison Letters\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martina Hacke <\/strong>(Independent scholar): Johann Amerbach\u2019s Network of Letters (1483 \u2013 1513) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

M.A. Katritzky <\/strong>(Open University): Margaret Cavendish (1623\u201373) and Gottfried Burghart (1705\u201371): atypically-bodied itinerant performers in \u2018theatre letters\u2019\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 2 1045 \u2013 1140<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Daria Chernysheva<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a) Sixteenth-Century Form and Style<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guillaume Coatalen <\/strong>(University of Versailles Saint Quentin): The letters of John Lyly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

b) Illustrated Epistolary Texts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eleanor Dodd (Open University): ‘<\/em>For children everywhere: First Class‘<\/em>: How the history and evolution of movable picturebooks influenced the creation and success of The Jolly Postman<\/em> [Lightning talk]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lik Hang Tsui <\/strong>(City University of Hong Kong): The Many Lives of Epistolary Manuscripts in Imperial China: From Calligraphic Artifacts to Engraved Models [Lightning talk] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex Cohen <\/strong>(Freelance writer): A thousand words: illustrated letters and their place in art history [Lightning talk] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BREAK 1140 – 1200 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 3 1200 \u2013 1255 Renaissance correspondences<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Edmund King<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jonathan Gibson (Open University): Elizabethan \u2018letters to show\u2019 in life and literature <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molly Ziegler <\/strong>(Open University): Staged letters in early modern drama <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Hammond <\/strong>(Open University): England\u2019s Heroicall Epistles<\/em>: Michael Drayton\u2019s love letters to the theatre <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liz Ford <\/strong>(Open University): \u2018Here it is written\u2019: correspondence and genre in Shakespeare\u2019s Romeo and Juliet<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please note that following the end of this panel, there will be an automated slideshow featuring information about research groups in English and Creative Writing, and Languages and Applied Linguistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BREAK 1255 – 1330<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1330 -1425 Keynote speaker: Mel Evans <\/strong>(University of Leeds): \u2018What letter\u2019s that?\u2019 Exploring style and literariness in early modern fictional correspondence <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Rachele de Felice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 4 1430 \u2013 1525 Staged letters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Hannah Lavery<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerry Cooke <\/strong>(Mary Baldwin University): \u201cStreamers, white, red, black, here, here, here\u201d: The weaponization of epistolary practice in\u202fTamburlaine.\u202f<\/em>\u202f\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandra E. LaGrand <\/strong>(Texas A&M University) <\/strong>Much Ado About Beatrice: Anne Scott in Sir Walter Scott\u2019s Letters [Lightning talk] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Godfred Ogoe <\/strong>(Ohio State University): The Communal Reception of Shakespeare\u2019s Dramatic Letters\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BREAK 1525 – 1545<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 5 1545 \u2013 1620 Form and Societal Ethics in Seventeenth and Eighteenth-century Letters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Richard Jones<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicole Pohl <\/strong>(Oxford Brookes University): Mapping the World’s First Social Network: Electronic Enlightenment: Letters and Lives <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ashley Walker (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) \u2018To the Vertuous Ladies, and Gentlewomen of England\u2019: Gender, Morality, and Authority in Wye Saltonstall\u2019s Ovid\u2019s Heroicall Epistles<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 6 1625 \u2013 1720 Eighteenth-century Writers and Epistolary Cultures<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Jonathan Gibson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clare Brant (King\u2019s College, London): Loopholes and nets: William Cowper\u2019s correspondence <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Una Tanovi\u0107 (University of Massachusetts, Amherst): Epistolary self-fashioning in Benjamin Franklin\u2019s Autobiography<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alain Kerherv\u00e9 <\/strong>(University of Brest): Famous authors in eighteenth-century epistolary manuals: the case of Samuel Richardson <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BREAK 1720 – 1830<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 7 1830 \u2013 1925 Creative Correspondences<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Emma Claire Sweeney<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberta Zanasi (University of Bologna): \u201cTo write? Or not to write? That was the question with Geoffrey\u201d: love letters in Victorian novels <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jennifer Burek Pierce <\/strong>(University of Iowa): Letters to Mary Ellen: lace, ribbons, and flowers <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laure de Nervaux-Gavoty <\/strong>(Paris-Est Cr\u00e9teil University): \u201cI do hope you will agree to a few paid letter-sessions\u201d: Sylvia Plath\u2019s letters to Ruth Beuscher <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 8 1930 \u2013 2100 The Postal Museum: Reading postal history 1800-1920<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Sara Haslam<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joanna Espin<\/strong>: Introducing The Postal Museum, speakers and panel; Susannah Coster<\/strong>: Accessing The Postal Museum\u2019s Collections; Mathilde Jourdan<\/strong>: Letter writing in the 1800s, with Jane Austen as a case study; Georgina Tomlinson<\/strong>: The Penny Post revolution; Chris Taft<\/strong>: The First World <\/strong>War, <\/strong>with a focus on Wilfred Owen\u2019s \u2018The Letter\u2019; Laura Gibbs<\/strong>: Post-war Censorship, with James Joyce as a case study <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DAY TWO: Thursday 6th<\/sup> November <\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 9 0900 \u2013 0955 Nineteenth-century poets and epistolary networks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Molly Ziegler<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lynda Pratt (University of Nottingham): Editing Robert Southey\u2019s Letters for the Twenty-First Century <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amy Wilcockson <\/strong>(University of Glasgow): Literati and Letters: Thomas Campbell\u2019s Networks <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Storer <\/strong>(Leeds Trinity University): \u2018The best letters I\u2019ve ever read!\u2019: Rediscovering \/ re-editing T. E. Brown <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 10 0850 \u2013 0955 Letters, Literature and Intimacy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Ed Hogan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clare Best (Open University): Writing between the lines <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selina Packard <\/strong>(Open University): Claire Clairmont\u2019s Letters and her Literary Reputation <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ay\u015fe Nur \u00d6\u011f\u00fct (Independent scholar): The Intimate Act of Writing: Literacy, Letters, and the Transformation of Privacy in Ottoman Novels <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweta Sry Reddy (CHRIST University, Bangalore): Unsent and Undone: Epistolary Intimacy and Crip World-making in Sejal A Shah\u2019s \u201cLetters I Never Sent” [Lightning Talk]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 11 1000 \u2013 1055 ‘Austen’ and the Epistolary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Emma Claire Sweeney<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eve Annuk <\/strong>(Estonian Literary Museum): To write or to take care of: the letters of Estonian writer Elisabeth Aspe (1860-1927) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samuli Kaislaniemi <\/strong>(University of Eastern Finland): Imagined letters folded by hand: Pride and Prejudice, simulacra and epistolary materiality <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naomi Walker <\/strong>(Open University): Beyond the Grave: Letters to and from Jane Austen <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 12 1100 \u2013 1155 Nineteenth-century English Literature and Letters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register <\/strong>her<\/strong>e<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Samuel Sargeant<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irina Rabinovich <\/strong>(Holon Institute of Technology): Exploring Literary Dialogues: Grace Aguilar\u2019s Epistolary Exchange with Isaac D\u2019Israeli \u2013<\/strong> Insights into Gender Dynamics, Literary Heritage, and Cross-Gender Mentor-Mentee Relationships  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antonia Saunders <\/strong>(Open University): An Amende Honorable: The early correspondence of Maria Edgeworth and Rachel Mordecai, and a previously unpublished letter from Maria to her aunt and cousin [Lightning talk] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam Baldwin <\/strong>(Open University): The Case of the Missing Letters: correspondence, power, knowledge, law, and morality in two Sherlock Holmes stories <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen Paine <\/strong>(Open University): The Subversive Confessional Letter of old Allan Armadale in Wilkie Collins\u2019 Armadale <\/em>[Lightning talk] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BREAK AND SHORT FILM 1155-1210 – An opportunity to view an OU\/BBC short film in which biographer Paula Byrne discusses Jane Austen’s letters. The film is introduced by Emma Claire Sweeney. Register here<\/a>.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 13 1210 \u2013 1255 Letters and Friendship: A conversation <\/em>on Elizabeth von Arnim and David Jones<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Jasmine Hunter-Evans<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jasmine Hunter-Evans <\/strong>(Open University); Juliane Roemhild <\/strong>(La Trobe University); Anna Svendsen <\/strong>(University of St Thomas, Houston); Jennifer Shepherd <\/strong>(Open University) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please note that following the end of this panel, there will be an automated slideshow exhibiting the wonderful postcards<\/a> sent to us by contributors as part of a letters-themed optional task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BREAK 1255-1330<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1330 \u2013 1425 Keynote speaker: Emma Clery (Uppsala University): The epistolarium, modern letters editions, and the case of Mary Wollstonecraft <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Sara Haslam<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 14 1430 \u2013 1525 Ford Madox Ford\u2019s Letters, Writing Life, and Networks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Seamus O’Malley (Yeshiva University, New York)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helen Chambers <\/strong>(Open University); Barbara Cooke <\/strong>(Loughborough University); Sara Haslam <\/strong>(Open University); Max Saunders <\/strong>(University of Birmingham) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BREAK 1525 – 1545<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 15 1545 \u2013 1640 The Bront\u00ebs; Vernon Lee; Elizabeth Gaskell: Epistolary (counter-) Narratives and Fictions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Shafquat Towheed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

J\u00falia Mota Silva Costa <\/strong>(Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil): Charlotte Bront\u00eb\u2019s letters as counter-narrative: on editing and defending Emily Bront\u00eb <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophie Geoffroy <\/strong>(Universit\u00e9 de La R\u00e9union): Epistolary Genesis: Vernon Lee\u2019s Letters and the Making of a Literary Life <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anne Longmuir (<\/strong>Kansas State University): Epistolary Fictions: Authorial Persona and Narrative Form in Elizabeth Gaskell\u2019s Correspondence and Periodical Fiction <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 16 1545 \u2013 1640 Letters, Literature, Space and Identity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Jennifer Shepherd<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Borthwick <\/strong>(Open University): The Aeolian Epistolic: Geographic Imagination and Spiritual Experience in John Muir\u2019s Letters and Journals <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexis Peri <\/strong>(Boston University): Sailing the Mississippi Together: Huckleberry Finn<\/em> in Cold-War Correspondence <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia Fernilius <\/strong>(Stockholm University): \u2018I really want the little cottage [\u2026] and you!\u2019: Rethinking Domestic Correspondence in the Making of Modernism <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 17 1645 \u2013 1740 Letters, Literature and Politics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Alex Tickell<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khadija Alexander (McMaster University): From Robber to Writer: How one letter changed a prisoner\u2019s life [Lightning talk] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbara Hochman <\/strong>(Ben-Gurion University): Words of Warning: Autobiographical Letters to Black Children <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dean J. Hill <\/strong>(University of Birmingham): George Orwell\u2019s Letters: Authenticity and Political Community in Literary Networks <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isabelle Parsons <\/strong>(Open University): The weight of letters in The House of Mirth<\/em> [Lightning talk] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BREAK 1740-1830<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 18 1830 \u2013 1925 Teaching Letters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Daniel Smith (King’s College, London)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dianne Mitchell <\/strong>(University of Colorado, Boulder); Alison Wiggins <\/strong>(University of Glasgow); Leah Veronese <\/strong>(University of Oxford); Louise Curran <\/strong>(University of Birmingham); James Daybell <\/strong>(University of Plymouth) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 19 1930 \u2013 2100 Letters and Literature PGR\/ECR panel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Anne Wetherilt<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ishan Tripathi <\/strong>(University of Manchester): The Unsent Letter in Partition Fiction: Epistolary Haunting and Deferred Address <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maya M. Haidar (Sorbonne): Intimacy and Distance in the Letters of Emily Eden (1837-1840) and Toru Dutt (1873-77): a comparative study [Lightning talk] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anita Schwartz (Open University): \u2018The ideals and traits of character that it has taken thousands of years to form are not affected by a mere external change\u2019: Correspondence, Courtship, and Nationhood in Swarnakumari Debi Ghosal\u2019s Novel An Unfinished Song <\/em>(1913) [Lightning talk] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talissa Ancona Lopez (Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil): From letter to poem: aspects of Ana Cristina Cesar\u2019s epistolary poetry <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patricia Ferguson (Open University): C. S. Lewis\u2019s first reading of George MacDonald\u2019s Phantastes<\/em> shows how letters can reveal the \u2018authentic self\u2019 [Lightning talk] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luc\u00eda Alonso Ram\u00edrez <\/strong>(Complutense University of Madrid): A kaleidoscope of paper fragments: the aestheticization of epistolarity in Gloria Fuertes\u2019 envelopes [Lightning talk] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larissa de Assump\u00e7\u00e3o (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg): The political and literary use of letters in nineteenth-century Brazil: the case of Emperor Pedro II\u2019s correspondence with American and European writers [Lightning talk]  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DAY THREE: Friday 7th<\/sup> November <\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 20 0900 \u2013 0955 Spain and Latin America<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Fiona Doloughan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encarnaci\u00f3n Trinidad Barrantes <\/strong>(Open University): Exploring letters and literary creativity through Isabel Allende <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silvina Katz <\/strong>(Open University): Reading Ocampo\u2019s Letters in the Twenty-First Century: A Translator\u2019s Perspective <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avril Tynan (University of Turku): Fax or Faux? Nonnarration in Jorge Semprun\u2019s Short Story Les Sandales<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 21 1000 \u2013 1055 Twentieth-Century Poets and Letters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Daria Chernysheva<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarah Bennett <\/strong>(Durham University): Friendship, Literary Criticism and the Epistolary Gift in the Irish Poetry Archive <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astrid Fizyczak <\/strong>(Sorbonne-Nouvelle): Epistolary Geographies of Loss: the Letter as Space of Absence in Elizabeth Bishop\u2019s Writing (1911 to 1979) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Andrew Swarbrick <\/strong>(University of Huddersfield): Philip Larkin\u2019s Letters of Exile <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 22 1100 \u2013 1155 Digital Epistolary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Francesca Benatti<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack Orchard (Bodleian Libraries): Gaming the Letter: Technology and Mediated Affect in Eighteenth-Century Letters and Contemporary Video Games  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nadia Georgiou (Sheffield Hallam University): Digital, print, neo-romantic: exploring tensions through twenty-first century epistolary forms <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suzanne R. Black <\/strong>(University of Edinburgh): Mediated communication and subjectivity in the twenty-first century romance plot <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please note that following the end of this panel, there will be an automated slideshow exhibiting the wonderful postcards<\/a> sent to us by contributors as part of a letters-themed optional task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 23 1200 \u2013 1255 Creative Writing and Letters I<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Joanne Reardon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melissa Bailey <\/strong>(Open University): <\/strong>Making and unmaking Empire through letters and fiction <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gwyneth Jones (Open University): Stupid letter from Fanny [Lightning talk] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siobhan Campbell <\/strong>(Open University): The Other Side of the Letter: Margaret Maher and Emily Dickinson in Dialogue [Lightning talk] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kim Wiltshire <\/strong>(Edge Hill University): The Letter Never Sent – Using the Letter Form in Creative Writing Workshops for NHS Staff During the Covid Pandemic  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BREAK 1255-1330<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1330 \u2013 1425 Keynote speaker: Jon McGregor (Nottingham University): An Audience of One: The letter as a natural literary form <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Ed Hogan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 24 1430 \u2013 1525 Exploring the Magical and Meaningful: Archives and Literary Correspondence<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Sarah Prescott (University of Leeds)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khadija Alexander <\/strong>(Archives Processing Librarian, McMaster University); Ruth Burton <\/strong>(Thomas Hardy Project Archivist, Dorset History Centre); Tom Duckham <\/strong>(Charles Dodgson Project Archivist, Christ Church, Oxford); Jessica Smith <\/strong>(Creative Arts Archivist, John Rylands Library, University of Manchester); John Wells <\/strong>(Senior Archivist, Cambridge University Library) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BREAK 1525-1535<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 25 1535 \u2013 1630 Letters and Literary Lives in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: M.A. Katritzky<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delia da Sousa Correa <\/strong>(Open University): Selecting Katherine Mansfield\u2019s Letters <\/p>\n\n\n\n

M. Carmen Gomez-Galisteo <\/strong>(Universidad Nacional de Educaci\u00f3n a Distancia, Spain): Reading Between the Lines: Louisa May Alcott\u2019s Letters and the Construction of a Professional Authorial Identity <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Mourant (University of Birmingham): Aspects of the (Epistolary) Novel: E. M. Forster to the Letter <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 26 1635 \u2013 1730 Creative Writing and Letters II<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: D\u00f3nall\u202fMac Cathmhaoill<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kanupriya Dhingra <\/strong>(Max Planck Institute): Mere Cupid, Mere Prem Devta<\/em>: Old Delhi\u2019s Subversive Love-Letter Writing Manuals <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lania Knight <\/strong>and George Sandifer-Smith <\/strong>(Open University): Apostrophe and Address, Poetry at Play as Letters to \u2018You\u2019\u202f[Creative Response \/ reading] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neil Redfield <\/strong>(New York University): <\/strong>\u2018The Unbridgeable Gap\u2019 [Creative Response \/ reading] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BREAK 1730-1800<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1800 \u2013 1855 Guest Authors Talk Letters I: Karen McCarthy Woolf<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Jane Yeh<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PANEL 27 1900 \u2013 1955 Fifty Years of Writers\u2019 Letters at Carcanet Press<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Robyn Marsack<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stella Halkyard <\/strong>(author and literary archivist); Robyn Marsack<\/strong> (editor for Carcanet Press 1982-99; Director of the Scottish Poetry Library 2000-16); Michael Schmidt <\/strong>(co-founder (1969) and Managing Director of Carcanet Press, and co-founder (1971) and editor of PN Review<\/em>) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2000 \u2013 2055 Guest Authors Talk Letters II: Sigrid Nunez<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Register here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair: Emma Claire Sweeney<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Note on Next Steps  <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A Note on Next Steps  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conference team was delighted by the enthusiastic response to the call for papers. It\u2019s a packed schedule as a result and the Q&As can\u2019t be as long as we would probably all like. We are thinking of ways to continue the conversation after the conference. Do keep an eye on the News section of our Letters and Literature conference website<\/a>. Meanwhile, if you\u2019d like to keep in touch about further opportunities and collaborations in the area of literary correspondence or update us about collaborations that emerge from the event, please drop us a line on sara.haslam@open.ac.uk<\/a>. A themed Special Issue, for example, remains on the team\u2019s list for post-conference discussion, but early exploration of this coupled with the wide range of responses suggest other outputs may work better. The team is keen to support such discussions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With grateful thanks to OpenARC, MK Lit Fest and SHARP along with Faculty colleagues for supporting this event, to panel chairs, and to all speakers for your patience through multiple emails as we worked to finalise the programme. Eleanor Dodd\u2019s vital contribution to the smooth planning and running of this event is also gratefully acknowledged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara Haslam<\/strong>, on behalf of the programme team <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Envelope
Envelope reading: Miss Austen, Chawton. Written by Jane Austen to Cassandra Austen, 1813. Detail from Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. 21838: https:\/\/digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk\/objects\/4ed2b41d-fdc2-4824-9d26-55957ee35040\/ CC BY-NC 4.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Banner image<\/strong>: detail from Reginald Marsh “Unloading the Mail”. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith. Full scale image available at https:\/\/hdl.loc.gov\/loc.pnp\/highsm.24950. No known copyright restrictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Letters and Literature 1500-2025: Histories, Forms, Communities\u2019  The Open University: 5, 6, 7 November 2025  CONFERENCE PROGRAMME  All times are GMT. Please click the ‘register here’ link under each panel title to sign up. To help you with your choice of sessions, you’ll find abstracts and biographies, here. We very much look forward to welcoming … Programme and registration<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-humanities.open.ac.uk\/letters2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-humanities.open.ac.uk\/letters2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-humanities.open.ac.uk\/letters2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-humanities.open.ac.uk\/letters2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-humanities.open.ac.uk\/letters2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":60,"href":"https:\/\/digital-humanities.open.ac.uk\/letters2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":451,"href":"https:\/\/digital-humanities.open.ac.uk\/letters2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions\/451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-humanities.open.ac.uk\/letters2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}