UvA Students meet Author Richard Milward at Crossing Border Festival
11 December 2023
On 3 November, a group of BA and MA UvA English Literature students visited the Crossing Border Literary Festival in The Hague to meet the author Richard Milward and discuss his work with him. Milward’s new novel, Man-Eating Typewriter, which has been shortlisted for the Goldsmith’s Prize, has been described as ‘propulsive, relevant, outrageous, and often alarmingly beautiful’ and ‘like Ulysses for those who can’t cope with reading Ulysses’.
Having read the novel in advance, students asked Milward about topics including his inventive and sometimes bewildering use of language, the formal experimentation of the novel, and its often shocking – yet also comic - use of obscenity. After the discussion, students had the opportunity to attend the rest of the festival’s events, which included book readings, author interview and live musical performances. The visit, organised by the English Department’s Ben Moore and Kristine Johanson, is part of a partnership with the festival which has been running since 2019.