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CfP: Ted Hughes’ “Tales from Ovid”, Thirty Years On

October 31

2027 will be the 30th anniversary of the publication of Tales from Ovid. Twenty-four Passages from the Metamorphoses by the Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. Tales from Ovid was immediately acclaimed and was Whitbread Book of the Year 1997 and winner of the WHSmith Literary Award in 1998. It is recognised as a landmark publication both in Hughes’s lifetime oeuvre and in the broader history of translation of the Metamorphoses. To mark the anniversary, in collaboration the Ted Hughes Society and the School of Classics, St Andrews University will be hosting a series of online events, each one dedicated to an individual tale by Hughes. The events will be accessible to everyone and will feature a Q&A/discussion after the presentation. Hughes was himself passionate about the appeal of poetry to new audiences, especially the young. We are seeking contributions of different types on different tales from different perspectives, and hope to have a roster of speakers including creative writers, Hughes specialists, English literature critics, classicists and others. All are welcome.

Possible considerations might include:

  • The relationship of the tale to the Ovidian original
  • its relationship to other English language versions, both before Hughes and after
  • its relationship to the other tales
  • its relationship to Hughes’ wider work, in translation or not
  • where available, Hughes’ voice recording of the tale

Our plan is to launch the series in January 2027. We anticipate hosting the events on an approximately monthly basis in the first instance, each on a midweek evening GMT/BST (to be as accessible as possible to different time zones too). We welcome proposals of papers from all quarters; proposals could be for individual or joint ventures, to last about 40 minutes. Simply put, our ambition for the series is to stimulate thought and conversation about two great poets.

Beyond the online meetings, our ambition for the initiative is for it to be a milestone in critical appreciation of the Tales from Ovid, in digital or hardcopy format, as appropriate.

We invite proposals of 300 words, to be submitted to tedhughes2728@st-andrews.ac.uk by 31st October. Proposals should make clear which of the 24 tales will be the focus of the presentation; in the case of joint proposals, please include the names of all the presenters. While we hope to cover all 24 tales over the course of the programme, we also appreciate that they differ in length to a great extent, and that certain tales might attract more coverage than others.

Please feel free to bring this call to the attention of any potentially interested parties.

Enquiries can be directed to rdr1@st-andrews.ac.uk

Terry Gifford, Ted Hughes Society
Roger Rees, School of Classics, St Andrews University

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