NEWS
In June 2024 LCIS will be hosting another international conference, "Irish literature and the global marketplace". The Call for Papers is out now.
The conference on "Irish literature and periodical culture" which Phyllis Boumans and I organised in Leuven in December 2022 was a great success. You can find the programme, plenary speakers and invited authors on the conference website. We are now working on a collected volume with articles based on conference papers.
My edited collection of selected short stories by Ethel Colburn Mayne has now been published, in the Irish Women Writers series edited by Kathryn Laing and Sinead Mooney.
An introduction to Mayne can be found on the blog of the Irish Women Writers Network |
I spent the summer (July 2019) happily engrossed in copies of The Bell at Boston College. I am very grateful to James Murphy and Christian Dupont for allowing me to stay at the Burns Scholar house and welcoming me at the Burns library. This is in the context of an FWO funded research project: "The Bell and the Modern Irish Short Story", which I am working on together with Phyllis Boumans
From the 29th of November to the 1st of December, the Leuven Centre for Irish Studies is hosting a conference on Innovation and experiment in contemporary Irish fiction. We have three full days of lectures, debates, paper sessions as well as readings by writers John Banville and Sara Baume.
On 16 and 17 May 2018, I am hosting a conference on the work of British novelist and short story writer, Sarah Hall. Alexander Beaumont from York St John's University is co-organising the event and we are planning an essay collection about Sarah Hall with Gylphi. Sarah will also read from her work.
I am happy to announce that my new book has just been published: Irish Women Writers and the Modern Short Story (Palgrave, 2016). It comes with great endorsements: “A wide-ranging and perceptive study. By focussing on women writers, Elke D'hoker casts an interesting new light on the Irish short story, encouraging us to rethink traditional approaches to the form." (Heather Ingman, Trinity College Dublin, author of “A History of the Irish Short Story”)
“D’hoker’s sensitive, measured study challenges the shibboleths on which accounts of the Irish short story have for too long rested. Exemplary close readings cast new light on familiar as well as neglected women writers, and the book makes a significant contribution to debates about gender and the short story genre.” (Adrian Hunter, University of Stirling, author of “The Cambridge Introduction to the Short Story in English”)
“D’hoker’s sensitive, measured study challenges the shibboleths on which accounts of the Irish short story have for too long rested. Exemplary close readings cast new light on familiar as well as neglected women writers, and the book makes a significant contribution to debates about gender and the short story genre.” (Adrian Hunter, University of Stirling, author of “The Cambridge Introduction to the Short Story in English”)
From the 29th of August to the 2nd of September 2016, I am organising the 4th International PhD seminar in Irish Studies, under the umbrella of EFACIS and LCIS. Some twenty PhD students working in the field of Irish Studies all over Europe (and beyond) will come to Leuven to present their work, listen to lectures, discuss new theories and paradigms, and generally have a good time ... See LCIS website for the
programme
On May 11 we hosted the 6th Servotte Lecture. Guest writer this time was James Kelman, who read from his short stories and gave a rousing speech about language, art and identity.
In November 2016 I was invited as visiting scholar at the University of Angers, where I gave lectures and attended the conference "Haunting in Short Fiction and its Adaptations", which I co-organised with Michelle Ryan-Sautour (Angers) and Ailsa Cox (Edgehill). The conference was a great success: many interesting papers as well as a great reading and interview by guest writer Jon McGregor.
With the Leuven Centre for Irish Studies, we launched a new initiative: LCIS lectures in Irish Studies. John Wilson Foster (Queen's University Belfast) kicked off the series with a fascinating lecture on Lady Malleson. As you can see on the programme, we have a great line-up of speakers.
Banville interview : on the 21st of May 2015 I am interviewing John Banville at Maastricht University to celebrate the inauguration of their Centre for Contemporary Writing.
The new year started well, with the publication of the essay collection The Irish Short Story. Traditions and Trends, which I edited together with Stephanie Eggermont. The different articles in the collection trace the development of the short story in Ireland from the 19th century to the present. The book will be launched during the ENSFR conference "Reading Short Fiction in Transnational Contexts" at TCD/UCD, Dublin on the 18th of April at 6.30 p.m.
In early October 2014, I was invited as a participant of a symposium on "Narrative and Relevance", organised by Katharine Rennhak and Matei Chihaia at the University of Wuppertal. I presented a paper on the relevance of narrative theory for the study of the short story and, vice versa, the relevance of short stories for narrative theory.
The third PhD seminar in Irish Studies which we organised at the Leuven Centre for Irish Studies in the last week of August was a great success. There were superb lectures by Sean Crosson, Anne Mulhall, Matthew Campbell, Claire Connolly, and Jane Ohlmeyer. The student presentations were of a high level throughout. In two years time, we'll be back with the next one.
In June I was going to attend the second meeting of the European Network of Short Fiction Research in Angers, when the French train strike sadly prevented me from going. Nevertheless, good progress was made on the network, thanks to the efforts of Michelle Ryan Sautour and many other people at Angers. We will further discuss the network - and hopefully attract new members - at the upcoming Vienna conference on the short story: the 13th International Conference of the Short Story in English. I will be part of a panel on the synergy between the short story and other genres and I will talk about the relation between the short story collection and the contemporary novel.
In June I was going to attend the second meeting of the European Network of Short Fiction Research in Angers, when the French train strike sadly prevented me from going. Nevertheless, good progress was made on the network, thanks to the efforts of Michelle Ryan Sautour and many other people at Angers. We will further discuss the network - and hopefully attract new members - at the upcoming Vienna conference on the short story: the 13th International Conference of the Short Story in English. I will be part of a panel on the synergy between the short story and other genres and I will talk about the relation between the short story collection and the contemporary novel.
In June I attended the joint ACIS-CAIS conference in Dublin, where I was part of a panel on "representations of home in Irish fiction", together with Katharina Renhak and Hedwig Schwall. I presented a paper on images of house and home in the short fiction of Maeve Brennan.
Servotte Lecture 2014: Carol Ann Duffy
21 May, 8 p.m., Aula de Somer, Leuven.
For the 5th Servotte lecture we are proud to welcome the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Carol Ann Duffy. She will read from her work and she will be accompanied by all-round performer and musician, John Sampson.
The lecture is free, but you can register through this link
21 May, 8 p.m., Aula de Somer, Leuven.
For the 5th Servotte lecture we are proud to welcome the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Carol Ann Duffy. She will read from her work and she will be accompanied by all-round performer and musician, John Sampson.
The lecture is free, but you can register through this link
From 27th to 29th of March I am in Mannheim for a workshop on "Contemporary Imaginaries of Home", organised by Stella Butter and Sarah Heinz.
Saint Patrick's Day 2014 was celebrated in style in the Irish College in Leuven, with a performance of the Irish band Rossa and a reading by the celebrated novelist: Claire Kilroy.
The special issue of Interférences Littéraires / Literaire Interferenties on the short story collection is now online. It contains interesting and original articles by René Audet, Rolf Lundén, Mara Santi, Matthijs Duyck and many others. My colleague Bart Van den Bossche and I have written an extensive introduction, which surveys the conceptualisation of the short story collection in different literary and critical traditions. The introduction appears in both French and English. You will find the journal issue here.
Another journal issue which I edited, a special issue of
Short Fiction in Theory and Practice (3,2) has just been
published. It contains interesting articles on the short story cycle as well as
an interview with Rachel Cusk.
Short Fiction in Theory and Practice (3,2) has just been
published. It contains interesting articles on the short story cycle as well as
an interview with Rachel Cusk.
On 7-8 February 2014, Leuven hosted the first meeting of the steering group of the newly established European Network for Short Fiction Research. You will find more information about the network on their blog.
13 December 2013: the viva of my very first PhD student: Stephanie Eggermont: she did an excellent job!
9-11 November: I was invited to give the opening lecture at the conference 'John Banville and his precursors' at the University of York. My lecture was was entitled: "Everything has to be qualified: reading as misreading in Banville and de Man"
Book Launch Mary Lavin
on the 9th of October 2013, Mary Lavin was launched in Boston College House, Dublin; 6.30-8.30 p.m. It was introduced by Prof. Margaret Kelleher (UCD)
on the 10th of October 2013, there was a book launch on Lavin's home ground: in County Library of Navan. Our gracious host was the poet and librarian, Tom French and the book was introduced by Dr. James Ryan (UCD)
for a brief account of Mary Lavin's work and an introduction to the book, see my piece on Lavin on writing.ie
I also did two radio interviews about the book in Ireland: one with Ellen Gunning on the Mediascope programme of Dublin City FM, which can be listened to as a podcast on http://mediascope.podomatic.com/
A second one with Michael Reade for LMFM radio, which can be found on http://www.lmfm.ie/boxtube/? - but you have to move to the 22nd minute of the podcast to get to the interview.
on the 9th of October 2013, Mary Lavin was launched in Boston College House, Dublin; 6.30-8.30 p.m. It was introduced by Prof. Margaret Kelleher (UCD)
on the 10th of October 2013, there was a book launch on Lavin's home ground: in County Library of Navan. Our gracious host was the poet and librarian, Tom French and the book was introduced by Dr. James Ryan (UCD)
for a brief account of Mary Lavin's work and an introduction to the book, see my piece on Lavin on writing.ie
I also did two radio interviews about the book in Ireland: one with Ellen Gunning on the Mediascope programme of Dublin City FM, which can be listened to as a podcast on http://mediascope.podomatic.com/
A second one with Michael Reade for LMFM radio, which can be found on http://www.lmfm.ie/boxtube/? - but you have to move to the 22nd minute of the podcast to get to the interview.