Creative Talk: The alchemy of turning research into fiction

This event is part of our Creative Talks series that feature practitioners/makers/artists who work in a variety of disciplines, media and forms across the creative arts, including: the visual arts, design, performance, craft-work, creative writing and more. The series aims to address questions about the nature of ‘creativity’ and ‘practice as research’, featuring speakers who will share their work, the processes they use, their influences, and their own experiences of professional practice. Sessions will reflect the disciplinary range of speakers and may feature presentations, performances, workshops etc. The aim is to create an open, multi-disciplinary space in which to introduce audiences (students and the public alike) to a wide range of creative practices that inspire new ideas about how to make new work.

For this Creative Talk we invite Fiona Williams to speak about her debut novel ‘The House of Broken Bricks’, which was published in the UK by Faber. She will share her imaginative ambitions alongside her ‘practice as research’, and interest in ‘craft’ and creativity. This will be followed by a reading and opportunity for questions.  

Fiona Williams is a writer and the author of the debut novel The House of Broken Bricks, which was the winner of the 2021 Bridport Prize, Peggy Chapman-Andrews First Novel Award. She holds an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. Born and raised in South-East London, she now lives with her family in the West Country, where her writing focuses primarily on rurality and the relationships between identity, belonging, nature and landscape. 

Chair: Professor Anthony Caleshu, Creative Writing, University of Plymouth 

Date: Thursday 13 February 2025
Time: 16:30–18:00
Venue: The House stage
Ticket information: £6, £4 concessions, Free to University of Plymouth students