David Almond Fellowships Announced for 2016
David Almond Fellowships, 2016
Newcastle University and Seven Stories - The National Centre for Children’s Books are pleased to announce details of the 2016 David Almond Fellowships. The Fellowships aim to promote high-quality research that explores and develops Seven Stories’ archives. To recognise an exceptionally strong field, the number of Fellowships awarded in 2016 has been increased from 3 to 4. The recipients are:
Lois Burke: a doctoral student at Edinburgh Napier University, Lois’s research questions the extent to which girl characters in books set in the Victorian period follow or transgress nineteenth-century models of sexual and psychological development. She will consult the Philip Pullman holdings, the notebook drafts of work by Leon Garfield, and the manuscript and typescript drafts of Diana Wynne Jones’ neo-Victorian novella, ‘Everard’s Ride’.
Simone Hermann: a research assistant on a German Research Foundation-funded project about canon formation and social imaginaries, Simone is coming to Seven Stories to look at British Robinsonnades and what they say about negotiations between individuals and communities. She will be consulting the Bernard Ashley, M.E. Atkinson, Harold Jones and Ursuala Moray Williams archives where there are relevant original drafts, manuscripts and cuttings.
[Char]Lotte Reinbold: a doctoral student at Robinson College, Cambridge, Lotte is investigating the influence of medieval literature on the work of Diana Wynne Jones. She will be consulting the Diana Wynne Jones archive to see how Jones draws on and reworks Middle English poetry.
Lucy Stone: a postgraduate student from Cambridge University who is working on children’s literature about play and exile and will be consulting the Diana Wynne Jones, Judith Kerr and Elinor Lyon archives to investigate how, even in times of extremis, children’s play allows them to exercise a degree of control over their environments.
Sarah Lawrance, Collection Director at Seven Stories says, ‘We are really delighted to be attracting researchers of such high calibre to explore the increasingly extensive and significant archive holdings at Seven Stories.’
The Fellowships, which have been awarded on an annual basis since 2012, are small grants, originally endowed by renowned writer David Almond with support from Seven Stories and Newcastle University, to support individual researchers with the costs of travel to Newcastle.
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For further information contact Professor Kimberley Reynolds, School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, Newcastle University: Kim.Reynolds@ncl.ac.uk
