Free Word

Climate change is described by many as one of the most urgent and important stories of our time, but it can also seem difficult, confusing - even boring. The last great surge of media attention occurred in the late-2000s, after which the dominant narrative came under bitter and sustained attack. But are there other ways of telling stories about climate change that support a better quality of understanding and debate?

Listen to an informed panel and audience discuss the different ways we can tell stories about our environment in this event hosted at Free Word Centre, organised by the Mediating Change group (based at the Open University), the Ashden Trust and Free Word.

Daniel Hahn moderates a competitive translation duel between former Free Word Translators in Residence Ollie Brock and Rosalind Harvey. Each was asked to translate the same first few pages of a Spanish text before being invited in front of a live audience at Free Word Centre to defend their choices.

You can view the original text, as well as Rosalind & Ollie's competing translations, at http://www.freewordcentre.com/blog/translationslam

Are we losing trust in our society? Kicking off a new series of debates at Free Word Centre, 'Whose Voices are Heard?' looks at trust and authority, and asks if there is a crisis of trust between young people and the democratic institutions which are supposed to represent them. Are young people totally disenfranchised from these systems? Why might trust in these authorities be damaged, and how can it be forged or repaired? Or is this all totally normal: is mistrust and disaffection a natural part of being young?

Ruth Padel introduces a series of poems exploring our relationship with the natural world, and explains why nature, and our connection to it, is one of poetry's abiding themes.

Ruth Padel reads Emily Dickinson's "There Came a Wind Like a Bugle", as part of Poems on the Biosphere, a collection of poetry curated by Ruth Padel for Free Word exploring our changing relationship with the natural world.

Ruth Padel reads her poem about painting, corruption and the destruction of the environment. Part of 'Poems on the Biosphere', a collection of poetry curated for Free Word by Ruth Padel exploring our changing relationship with the natural world.

Jason Dittmer chairs a panel discussion for the launch of Reframe, an exhibition of comic artworks exploring contemporary attitudes to Europe. Panelists include Algerian artist Soumeya Ouarezki, Turkish artist Murat Mıhçıoğlu, British artist ILYA, translator Canan Marasligil and the director of Comica Festival, Paul Gravett.

Reframe: Perspectives on Europe through comics from Algeria, Turkey and the UK is presented by Comica, Istanbulles with Studio Rodeo, FIBDA, and Free Word in association with ARTICLE 19 and Booktrust and supported by the European Cultural Foundation.

Why does translated literature get so little attention in the press? Books editor of the Guardian, Claire Armitstead, talks to award-winning translator Daniel Hahn about the tricky relationship between translators and their reviewers.

The best-selling author of 'The Time-Traveler's Wife' draws on her experiences as a writer and visual artist to consider the intersection of art, technology, and the future of the written word. This was the keynote speech at this year's Literary Conference from The Literary Consultancy, held at the Free Word Centre in June 2013. For more information, visit www.literaryconsultancy.co.uk

Gabriel Gbadamosi's novel 'Vauxhall' and Colin Grant's memoir 'Bageye at the Wheel' both feature child narrators who act as go-betweens between black and white worlds. In an evening at the Free Word Centre exploring how blackness can be both defining and limiting for authors, Colin, Gabriel and members of the audience spoke to us about the child characters from their favourite books who made an impression on their lives.