Writing the Fens

Our conference brings together scholars and creative authors working on the fens to create a new narrative that focuses on how writers have engaged with the fens, drawing creative sustenance from this unique region between water and land. Our focus on restoration acknowledges the loss of the ecological diversity of the region and the ways of life it supported, while seeking to establish a new narrative that focuses on the survival of the fens through the centuries. We will explore how writers across time have the fens as an imaginative resource and how they have endeavoured in their writings to restore fens both past and present.

 

The expertise and experience of the presenters stretch from the medieval period to the present day. This is a unique conference which we believe is the first of its kind. It brings together scholars whose expertise collectively covers the long durée of the fens in order to foreground the story of the fens themselves as their story unfolds over the centuries. Our speakers will be literary scholars and historians interested in literary representations of the fens, as well as contemporary creative writers who have drawn inspiration from this unique land- and waterscape.