March 2009

Abu Dhabi International Book Fair
17 - 22 March 2009
As part of its commitment to Reader Development in the region, the British Council has invited specialist David Kendall to take part in a series of workshops designed to encourage reading amongst young people. His topics include how to attract reluctant readers, looking at the graphic novel and how to use digital media to engage young people with reading.

February 2009

Words and Beyond: Exploring Illustrated Children's Literature in the English Language Classroom
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 17 - 20 February 2009
Following on from the British Council’s successful three-year Animating Literature project in East Asia, this seminar will explore the relevance of understanding visual literacy and themes of interculturality at a primary level. Participants from across East Asia will include English language teaching (ELT) specialists, teacher trainers and representatives of various ministries of education. UK speakers include the popular writer and illustrator Oliver Jeffers, plus literacy and educational expert Janet Evans and ELT specialist and storytelling pro Carol Read.

Emirates Airline International Festival of Literature
Dubai, UAE 26 February - 1 March 2009
As the first major literature festival of its kind in the MD region, the EAIFL looks set to be attended by a host of famous authors from both the English-speaking and Arab world. As part of the festival’s educational strand, the British Council are working with storyteller Alec Williams and performance poet Val Bloom to deliver a series of Literature in Performance workshops and performances to engage with both children, parents and educational professionals and build on the legacy of the Voices project.

January 2009

The Cairo Book Fair
22 January – 2 February 2009
In celebration of the UK being guest of honour at the 2009 Cairo Book Fair, the British Council has arranged an exciting programme of events focusing on developing links between the UK and Arab World publishing industries. This will include seminars, breakfast briefings and networking events, as well as sessions with writers such as Ben Okri, Margaret Drabble, Ahdaf Soueif and many more.

2nd Children’s and Young Adults’ Book Fair
Athens, Greece, 23 - 26 January 2009
In celebration of UK being the guest of honour at this year’s fair, the British Council have arranged a series of talks, workshops and performances aimed at engaging young people in reading. As well as presenting writers, the showcase will also include a wider range of media including graphic novels, storytelling and performance poetry.  Participants from the UK include popular young-fiction writers Kevin Brooks and Celia Rees, performance poetry boy band Aisle 16 and director of Institute for the Future of the Book, Chris Meade.

December 2008

The Animating Literature Portal is undergoing a review and is currently unavailable.

November 2008

Medi-Café conference in Tunis
28 - 29 November 2008
The British Council and University of London in Paris held a two-day creative writing conference in Tunis. A range of workshops focussing on fiction, non-fiction and poetry were run by the Medi-Café mentors and attended by the project’s ever-enthusiastic participants.

October 2008

Power in the Voice - celebrating young people finding their voices through spoken word, performance poetry, rap, storytelling and the oral tradition - came  to the South Bank Centre on 27 October. Students from St Aloysius School perform work that took them to Botswana to join others from across Southern Africa, at the Power in the Voice International Festival. Introduced by Jacob Sam La Rose and Joelle Taylor. Click here for more information.

The British Council's Speechless performance poetry tour, in conjunction with Apples & Snakes, concluded at the end of October - click here for more details.

September 2008

For the third consecutive year British Council Spain was delighted to collaborate in the Hay Festival Segovia. Click here for more information.

August 2008

Edinburgh Bookcase 2008
The British Council Literature Department and British Council Scotland organised the Bookcase forum for intercultural dialogue through Literature at Edinburgh International Book Festival in partnership with the Scottish Arts Council from Thursday 14 - Monday 18 August this year. The Bookcase programme offered readings, performances and discussion from a wide range of established and emerging authors from the UK with opportunities for interaction amongst the participants.

'Our Work in Literature 2008/09'
This publication explains what we do in the literature department and includes information on all of our current and upcoming projects.

Ended Earlier this Year

The London Book Fair and the Arab World
The London Book Fair ran from 14 – 16 April 2008. Click here for more information, and for a look at our related New Arabic Books website, which aims to bring Arabic books to English language readers, please click here.

Read&Click@Europe
The final year of Animating Literature in North and Central Europe kicked off with a workshop in the Ukraine to bring together 28 teachers who have been working on British Council reading projects in their own countries. Groups of students in different counties are now reading the same short stories and poems online, taken from the New Writing anthology, BritLit and Reading the City resources, and holding reading circles in their country group. Using the EnCompass Culture website, the groups have online contact with their partners in at least two other countries.  The teachers act as facilitators, helping the students use the texts as the basis for exploring each others’ cultures and Britain today.