Free Word

Ursula Owen chairs a panel discussion exploring the role of the literature house in creating a safe space for free expression.

Part of the 2014 European Literature House meeting hosted at Free Word centre, funded by Fritt Ord and Arts Council England, with support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the British Council.

Rosie Goldsmith chairs a panel discussion investigating the different ways writers can interact with their audiences.

Part of the 2014 European Literature House meeting held at Free Word Centre, funded by Fritt Ord and Arts Council England with support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the British Council.

Authors A.L. Kennedy, Xiaolu Guo and Adam Thirlwell debate the idea of the author as an activist with chair Ted Hodgkinson.

Part of the 2014 European Literature House Meeting, funded by Fritt Ord and Arts Council England with support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the British Council.

In a keynote speech for The Literary Conference 2014, author and renowned digital publishing pioneer Cory Doctorow talks about his creative experiments on and offline, and addresses head-on the thorny question of ‘Intellectual Property in a Digital Age’.

Learn more at literaryconsultancy.co.uk

Our resident translator Alice Guthrie tells us the story of her 5 favourite Arabic words - including love that goes straight to the liver, salt you can use as a put-down, and why a kiss in a corner shop can get you in real trouble.

**This recording contains strong language some people may find offensive**

Gemma Cairney hosts a debate on trust, technology and young people at Free Word Centre, featuring Emma Carr from Big Brother Watch, Hannah Flynn from Childline and social media journalist Claudia Andrew. With poetry from Deanna Rodger.

Can you believe what you hear in the news?

Free Word hosted a debate looking at trust, the media & young people, inviting a panel of experts in front of a lively audience to take a candid look at how young people feel towards those responsible for creating and manipulating contemporary news media.

This debate is part of "The Crisis of Trust in Europe" project of the "Time to Talk" network of European Houses for Debate.

This debate, and the series it is part of, 'Has Trust Lost its Value?', are supported by a grant from the Open Society Foundations.

The poet Inua Ellams talks to us about the importance of names, about dark, shade, and his favourite word, 'mellifluous'.

Kamila Shamsie chairs a discussion about the gray areas of free expression to mark the launch of a special edition of Guernica, the online magazine of art and politics. The issue was created in partnership with Free Word, in association with English PEN and ARTICLE 19, and supported by Open Society Foundations.

On the panel are Michael Archer, editor of Guernica, writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo, and writer Mirza Waheed.

Read the edition at www.guernicamag.com, with additional material at www.freewordcentre.com

Translation threads its way into so much of our lives that we sometimes forget to notice it. In this event at Free Word Centre, Asymptote, the international journal of literary translation, celebrate their third anniversary with a lively discussion of the way that language and translation work together. Award-winning translator Ros Schwartz chairs panellists Aamer Hussein, George Szirtes and Boyd Tonkin.