Online Events 2024
Dirty New Town: Owen Hatherley and John Grindrod
Tuesday 13 February 2024, Zoom, 7.00pm - 8.00pm; £Free (donations welcome)
New towns around the globe have been vast experiments in living. What do these places have in common, and what challenges do they face? Join two leading commentators on the built environment, Owen Hatherley and John Grindrod, as they discuss new towns in Scotland, Poland, and Japan – as well as Milton Keynes itself.
The Long and Short of It: Flash Fiction with Electra Rhodes
Monday 4 March 2024, Zoom, 7.30pm - 8.30pm; £Free (donations welcome)
The first event in a series sponsored by the Open University exploring fiction and form. Flash fiction is a complete story told in just a few hundred words. It has everything it needs and nothing it doesn’t. Acclaimed flash writer Electra Rhodes talks to Jupiter Jones about the creative freedom of keeping things small.
The Long and Short of It: Short Stories - Rattawut Lapcharoensap
Monday 11 March 2024, Zoom, 7.30pm - 8.30pm; £Free (donations welcome)
For this second event in the MK Lit Fest series, the acclaimed short story writer Rattawut Lapcharoensap talks to Alistair Daniel about the pleasures and challenges of one of the most demanding – but also rewarding – of literary forms.
The Long and Short of It: The Novella with Emily Bullock
Monday 18 March 2024, Zoom, 7.30pm - 8.30pm; £Free (donations welcome)
Exploded short story, compacted novel or something else entirely? What is a novella and what sets it apart from the long short story or the novel? Prize-winning author Emily Bullock talks to Sarah Bower about the joys and challenges of the form, and her own first novella, For Always Only.
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The Long and Short of It: The Novel with Amit Chaudhuri
Monday 25 March 2024, Zoom, 5.00pm - 6.00pm; £Free (donations welcome)
The novel is such a popular literary form that it’s easy to take it for granted. But do we really know what it is, or what it can be? Award-winning author and literary activist Amit Chaudhuri talks to Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone about how writers might approach and challenge this ubiquitous form.
Thinking and Writing Short and Long: Flash Fiction, Short Stories, Novellas and Novels
Saturday 6 April 2024, CMK Library, 11.00am - 12noon; £10/£7 Livestream: £PayWhatYouCan
The OU-sponsored discussion series on fictional forms culminates in an in-person panel event at MK Lit Fest Spring Festival 2024. Emma Claire Sweeney speaks with Edward Hogan, Catherine Menon, Irenosen Okojie and Naomi Wood – authors well known for their novels, novellas, flash fiction and short stories alike.
Dreams for Lammas: a gala of new local writing
Thursday 1 August 2024, Zoom, 7.00pm - 8.00pm; £3/£2
Some call it Lammas. Some call it Lughnasadh, Lughnasa or Lúnasa. Whatever your culture, in the Northern Hemisphere, early August has traditionally been a time when the start of harvest season is celebrated.
Our third gala of local writing welcomes your poems and short stories that explore this broad theme.