Four Quartets, a performance of dance and music hailed in the US as “the greatest creation of dance theater so far this century”, is coming to the Barbican in May 2019. The performance, based on T. S. Eliot’s sequence of poems, has choreography by Pam Tanowitz, music by Kaija Saariaho, images by Brice Marden and a reading of Four Quartets by actor Kathleen Chalfont. READ
Sir Christopher Ricks is to give this year’s Annual T. S. Eliot Lecture in Cambridge on Monday 3rd December at 7pm. The title of the lecture is ‘The Imperfections of Humanity: T. S. Eliot and a Shakespearean Hero’.
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The 2018 T. S. Eliot Prize shortlist, which includes five debut collections, one small press, five men, five women, and two Americans, has been announced. Judges Sinéad Morrissey (Chair), Daljit Nagra and Clare Pollard have chosen the shortlist from a record 176 poetry collections submitted by ‘a plethora of poetry publishers’:
Ailbhe Darcy – Insistence (Bloodaxe)Terrance Hayes – American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassins (Penguin)
Zaffar Kunial – Us (Faber & Faber)
Nick Laird – Feel Free (Faber & Faber)
Fiona Moore – The Distal Point (HappenStance)
Sean O’Brien – Europa (Picador)
Phoebe Power – Shrines of Upper Austria (Carcanet)
Richard Scott – Soho (Faber & Faber)
Tracy K Smith – Wade in the Water (Penguin)
Hannah Sullivan – Three Poems (Faber & Faber)
The third of five annual lectures inspired by T. S. Eliot’s impact on modern literature will be given by Stephen Pinker, one of the world’s leading authorities on language and the mind and Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard. The lecture, entitled Pessimism in a World of Progress, will be followed by an interview with Will Self. READ
Four Quartets – a performance of dance and music, alongside a reading of the poems – premiered last week at Bard College’s Summerscape festival in New York. This was the first authorised performance base
d on T. S. Eliot’s sequence of poems with choreography by Pam Tanowitz, music by Kaija Saariaho, images by Brice Marden and a reading of Four Quartets by Kathleen Chalfont. READ
First performed in 2015 as part of the Beckett Festival, now revived as part of the Mountains to Sea literary festival in 2018 by kind permission of the T. S. Eliot Estate, this performance remains true to the rhythms and references of 1922. READ
The T. S. Eliot Prize has announced the stunning 2017 shortlist and is marking the 25th anniversary of the Prize by increasing the prize money to £25,000. Newly commissioned videos and reviews of the poets’ work will be available on the website and through the Prize’s weekly newsletter. READ
The second of five annual lectures inspired by T. S. Eliot’s impact on modern literature.
Former U. S. Ambassador to the U. N., Samantha Power will give a lecture on the Abbey Stage, followed by an interview with Fintan O’Toole. Bob Geldof will introduce the evening.
On Tuesday 16 May 2017, Ronald Schuchard gave the University of London International Programmes’ inaugural 1858 Charter Lecture, ‘Eliot in the Wartime Classroom, 1916–1919’. The lecture is reproduced here in full to coincide with the University of London’s publication of the lecture. READ
On 16 May 2017 the University of London is hosting a special event, to mark the centenary of T. S. Eliot’s association with the university.
Professor Ronald Schuchard will deliver the inaugural 1858 Charter Lecture, entitled ‘Eliot in the Wartime Classroom 1916–1919’, which will focus on Eliot’s early writing, much of which was shaped during his time as an extension tutor for the University of London. READ
