The Chichester Centre for Critical and Creative Writing

My Downs, My Home is an ongoing interdisciplinary project led by Suzanne Joinson, in partnership with the South Downs National Park Authority. Having received seed funding in 2021, it is now in the second phase of its development. The project focuses on using creative writing workshops, both online and in real life, to creatively explore and respond to specific places in the National Park that sit in close proximity to the University of Chichester.

ASTRA is an award-winning theatre adaptation of Naomi Foyle’s critically acclaimed eco-science fantasy quartet The Gaia Chronicles (Jo Fletcher Books/Quercus UK/USA).

Set on a hot, post-fossil fuel Earth, ASTRA tells the story of Astra Ordott, a passionate young woman growing up in a corrupt Eden. Forced into exile after the murder of her dissident mother, Astra joins an uprising of disabled youths in a toxic refugee camp, where her thirst for revenge transforms into a quest for justice.

Supported by Arts Council England, the University of Chichester and a range of local sponsors, ASTRA premiered in Brighton in 2022 as a 70-minute multimedia theatre work-in-progress, designed and directed by Raven Kaliana.

‘ … Singular, inspiring, unforgettable … groundbreaking work … ’

FringeReview.co.uk

This project is jointly affiliated with the Chichester Centre for Fairy Tales, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction.

In 2022, we piloted an international writing residency in partnership with The Stephen Spender Trust and Rathbones Folio Prize, generously funded by the British Council as part of the Spotlight on Ukraine series.

The residency, led by Suzanne Joinson, was given to the award-winning Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Rafeienko, who was at that time exiled from Ukraine and separated from his family. Rafeienko took part in student seminars, live events and provided a series of digital blogposts.

The residency then culminated in a public event, ‘War, Writing and Connection’ with authors Sasha Dugdale and Luke Harding joining Rafeienko in a powerful roundtable discussion. Stephen Spender Trust, in partnership with Buckinghamshire Council, led on an outreach programme of activity linked to the residency, providing creative translation workshops focusing on Ukrainian in a wide range of primary and secondary schools.

The second phase of the international digital writing residency is currently being explored. It will focus in particular on Southern and Wider European writers and creative writing and translation.

Benjamin Noys is completing a monograph titled Envisioning the Good Life: The Limits of Contemporary Vitalism, under contract with Edinburgh University Press. Traversing existing vitalist theories of life as excess, the book offers an integrated vision of collective transformation against the fragmentation of contemporary life.

Benjamin Noys has a continuing editorial project with Alberto Toscano (Simon Fraser University) and the translator Chris Turner, editing the three volumes of Georges Bataille’s post-war writing for Critique, published by Seagull Press. These writings explore Bataille’s thinking of excess and his challenge to the limits of culture through the reviews and essays he wrote for Critique.

Volume One, covering the writings between 1944 and 1948, appeared in 2023: https://www.seagullbooks.org/critical-essays-1944-1948/

Volume two, 1949–1951, will appear in 2024 and volume three, 1952–1961, in 2025.

Responding to the continuing fascination with the Sussex Declaration, this project aims to commemorate the 250th anniversary of American Independence by exploring the impact of the American War of Independence on the public imagination, past and present, in Sussex, the South Downs and Britain more generally.

A series of events curated by Professor Price will invite participants to rethink the relationship between the idea(s) of freedom and the nation in historical, literary and creative ways, drawing in local stakeholders through co-operation with the South Downs Literary Festival and the West Sussex Record Office. The impetus for this project comes from Professor Price’s research into ideas of America in Romantic-period British fiction.

Following exciting discoveries about the Sussex Declaration of American Independence, Professor Price collaborated with the West Sussex Record Office, representing the University on the Mellon Foundation-funded project, ‘Transatlantic Ties’.

The project involved the digitisation of the American Collection at the Record Office, making it accessible via the project archive (https://www.transatlantic-ties.org.uk/about/); it led to the development of learning resources for teachers, a touring exhibition and a symposium on 11th June 2022 at the University of Chichester. Focussed on the War of American Independence and on the signing of the Declaration of American Independence, Transatlantic 250 will seek to engage the public imagination and enhance understanding of the complex meanings of these globally significant events.