Welcome

Our research focus is on writing practices, their cultural contexts and impacts ...

Welcome to the Open University’s Contemporary Cultures of Writing research group. We are interested in all forms of creative and academic writing, and our outlook is interdisciplinary. Our membership comprises novelists, poets, dramatists and life writers, as well as academics and practitioners in Literature, Linguistics, English Language, and Translation Studies. Our focus is on writing practices, their cultural contexts and impacts, and our activities include seminars, conferences, collaborative work, and publications.

Our past seminars have investigated wide-ranging subjects, including historical fiction, life writing, style, creativity and language, diversity in publishing, the rise of creative writing, and translation. The ‘past seminar series’ section of this website contains a wealth of material from our events, including audio recordings of many of the presentations and discussions.

The next event from Contemporary Cultures of Writing is in collaboration with MK Lit Fest 2024: 'The Long and the Short of It: from flash fiction to the doorstep novel' novel' full details of events here:  https://www.mklitfest.org/online-events-2024 

The group’s directors are Joanne Reardon and Jane Yeh.