#BritLit24: Jam Yesterday, Tomorrow and Today: New Adventures in Subjectivity

Our Literature Seminar is now available for you to watch online! 

Calling all literature lovers!

Now in its 38th year, the British Council Literature Seminar offers a unique opportunity for literature professionals, academics, students, and literature enthusiasts to engage directly with UK writers. Join us for a feast of workshops, panel discussions and exclusive readings over 2.5 days with some of the UK's brightest writing talents, as well as the chance to exchange over refreshments with peers working in the sector. This year, five of the UK's prestigious Granta Magazine's 'Best of Young British Novelists' will explore the latest in contemporary fiction.

We are thrilled to present a seminar celebrating five of Granta magazine's Best of Young British Novelists 2023 this year. Renowned writer and member of the jury Helen Oyeyemi will chair the event. It is a great honour that Sarah Bernstein, Eliza Clark, Camilla Grudova, K Patrick and Eley Williams have accepted our invitation to participate in the seminar. You can learn more about the authors below.

More details

The seminar will be held at Colonia Nova, Thiemannstraße 1/Tor 4, 12059 Berlin. It will start with an opening reading at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, 14 November, and finish at 1 p.m. on Saturday, 16 November. 

The seminar will consist of author readings, panel discussions, and workshops with the participating writers. The full seminar schedule is attached below.

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If you are unable to attend the whole seminar, you are welcome to join us for two free public readings at Colonia Nova:

  • Thursday 14th November, 19:30-21:00 followed by a drinks reception - Helen Oyeyemi reading and in conversation with Thomas Meaney
  • Friday 15th November, 19:30-21:00 - Eley Williams reading and in conversation with Jonathan Garfinkel

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For those joining us internationally, we are delighted to announce that we will be live-streaming two panel discussions during the Seminar.

  • Panel Discussion 1: ‘Microscope’ chaired by Helen Oyeyemi on Friday, 15 November, 11.30 CET. With Sarah Bernstein, Eliza Clark, Camilla Grudova, K Patrick and Eley Williams. Description: On beginnings. Starting out as fiction writers: what sparked the desire to begin writing, what kind of inspiration took hold and what kind of culture do you consume that feeds that? In writing itself: how, where and in what manner do you establish perspective to begin a piece. Expect: a discussion on establishing (or discovering) perspectives that generate imaginary exchanges. 
  • Panel Discussion 2: ‘Telescope’ chaired by Helen Oyeyemi on Saturday, 16 November, 11.30 CET. With Sarah Bernstein, Eliza Clark, Camilla Grudova, K Patrick and Eley Williams.  Description: On keeping going. How does one sustain the early momentum as a young novelist? How do you negotiate crossing the boundaries from the personal, and relying on one’s own experiences, into the impersonal, and developing narratives that might not be based in familiarity. Expect: observations and insights into the establishment of a literary sensibility, and how an author might direct that once it has hatched. 

Prose has personality ‒ that fact has been visible since the earliest imaginative works enacted in text. The novelty and exhilarative quality of the writing this seminar seeks to highlight lies in the immediacy with which some of our best contemporary writers engage us in altercations with the dividing lines between our interior lives and exterior existence. The enigmatic twinkle in a narrative’s eye and the startling particularity of its descriptive decisions: these, too, act as characters in the story being told. Plus, their effect on a reader’s imaginative capacities leads to a superabundance of conceptual fruit that puts jam on the menu for generations.

Helen Oyeyemi, Chair

Helen Oyeyemi

Helen Oyeyemi’s eleven books include What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, Gingerbread and Parasol Against the Axe. She’s a recipient of the Somerset Maugham Award and PEN’s Open Book Award, and her novel Peaces was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. 

She was a member of the judging panels for Granta Best of Young British Novelists 2023, the 2018 Man Booker International Prize, the 2015 Giller Prize and the 2015 Independent Foreign Fiction Award, and has reviewed fiction for The New Statesman, The Guardian,and The New York Times.

Camilla Grudova

Camilla Grudova is the author of the critically acclaimed The Doll's Alphabet, Children of Paradise, which was longlisted for the Women's Prize, and The Coiled Serpent, longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. In 2023 she was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists, a once-in-a-decade accolade.

Eley Williams

Eley Williams’ short fiction appears in anthologies including The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story, Pilot Press’ Modern Queer Poets, and Liberating the Canon edited by Isabel Waidner. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, her debut fiction collection Attrib. and Other Stories won the James Tait Back Memorial Prize for fiction, and her novel The Liar's Dictionary won a 2021 Betty Trask Award. 

Her second collection, titled Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good, was published this year, featuring stories shortlisted for the National Short Story Award and broadcast on BBC Radio.

Eliza Clark

Eliza Clark is the author of novels Boy Parts and Penance and short story collection She’s Always Hungry. She also writes for film and television. She was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, shortlisted for the Women's Prize Futures 10 award and listed on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Europe.

K Patrick

K Patrick is a writer based on the Isle of Lewis. In 2021 they were shortlisted for both the White Review Poetry and Short Story Prize, and in 2020 were runner-up in the Ivan Juritz Prize and the Laura Kinsella Fellowship. Their debut novel, MRS S, was published in June 2023. Relayed in bodily, impressionistic brushstrokes, Patrick’s novel speaks to their sensibilities as a poet: the writing is sensory and tactile, leaning toward intimation and gesture to convey the protagonist’s longing and want.

Sarah Bernstein

Sarah Bernstein is the author of NOW COMES THE LIGHTNING, THE COMING BAD DAYS, and STUDY FOR OBEDIENCE, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Giller Prize. In 2023 she was named as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. Her work has appeared in Granta, among other publications. She is from Montreal and lives in the Northwest Highlands.

Get involved using the hashtag #BritLit24.

Any questions? 

If you have any questions, please email us at literature@britishcouncil.de.

You can watch the last seminar on Class and Contemporary UK Writing, chaired by Bernardine Evaristo, on YouTube. 

See also

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