Book tickets or watch again until 31 October here
Durham Book Festival has commissioned writers Salena Godden, Jenn Ashworth and Andrew McMillan to each write and record an exclusive short story inspired by the theme of sleep. These stories will be released as podcast series and as we launch the first in our series – an exclusive short story from Salena Godden – join us for this event to find out more.
This roundtable discussion will reveal more about the Sleep Stories commissions and delve into the science and culture of sleep. Dr Diletta De Cristofaro, Principal Investigator on “Writing the Sleep Crisis”, the research project that inspired the commission, is joined by writer Salena Godden, author of Mrs Death Misses Death (shortlisted for the 2021 Gordon Burn Prize), Jason Ellis, Professor in Psychology and the Director of the Northumbria Centre for Sleep Research, and Dr Erik Hoel, a neuroscientist and author of The Revelations.
The speakers will discuss the rewards and challenges of engaging with sleep in creative writing, sleep and sleep disorders in our hyperconnected and restless world, a theory of the neural purpose of dreaming that has striking resonances with the purposes of fiction, and much more.
Co-commissioned by Durham Book Festival, Northumbria University and Politecnico di Milano (Italy).
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement 892459. The Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information the “Sleep Stories” commission contains.
This pre-recorded digital event will be available to ticket holders to watch on demand until 31 October.
Captions will be provided for this event.
