Author: Jan Carson
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Online Creative Writing Workshop
Autumn 2022 will see the publication of an exciting new anthology of short stories which explore the theme of dementia in a variety of different ways. Edited by Belfast based novelist, Jan Carson and Dr Jane Lugea (Senior Lecturer in English Language at QUB), the anthology will feature new work by 12 of the most…
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Dementia Fiction Festival – Programme
The festival takes place from 15th -16th September 2021. All events are free and accessible online. Book your place by clicking here. Dementia Fiction Festival 2021 Dementia is one of the most significant illnesses of our time, with 50 million people living with the condition and many more whose lives are affected. In the absence…
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Dementia Fiction Festival -Registration Now Open
Please join us for two days of incredible performances, insightful presentations and important conversations as we explore questions raised by a recent research project at Queen’s University Belfast. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the project investigates how the language of contemporary fiction represents the minds of characters with dementia. This festival/conference hybrid…
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“Back to Blackbrick” by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald
Cosmo’s grandad is beginning to exhibit the early signs of Alzheimer’s. A team of social workers appear at the house he shares with his grandparents, hoping to test Grandad Kevin’s memory. If he doesn’t pass this memory test, Grandad will be dispatched to a nursing home. Cosmo is particularly close to his grandparents after his…
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“Aliceheimer’s; Alzheimer’s Through the Looking Glass” by Dana Walrath
Anthropologist, artist and writer Dana Walrath became a live-in carer for her mother Alice after her Alzheimer’s diagnosis became too much for her to manage alone. Moving her mother from her apartment in New York to the family home in rural Vermont, Walrath used the months they spent together to both record her mother’s dementia…
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Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
First published in the early 90s and concerned with late 80s America, Michael Ignatieff’s novel Scar Tissueexplores the dementia narrative at a point when much less was known about the illness. In fact the narrator, a 45 year old philosophy professor, does not use the term dementia when describing his mother’s condition. Her official prognosis is…
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“Erasure” by Percival Everett
I’m just going to begin by laying my cards on the table. Erasure is an absolutely brilliant novel; one of the most interesting books I’ve read this year. It was recommended to me by the novelist Keith Ridgway when I asked for suggestions of novels which explored diversity in dementia narratives. The dementia aspect of the novel…
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Save the Date – Dementia Fiction Festival
We want to flag diary dates for our upcoming two-day festival/conference exploring dementia and fiction. It will take place at Accidental Theatre, Shaftesbury Square, Belfast on Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th September 2021. The festival will be hosted by the project team and will include keynotes, panels, workshops and readings. Writers, academics, people living with dementia and umbrella organisations will…
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Supernova
Supernova is Harry Macqueen’s second movie. It was both written and directed by Macqueen who spent a substantial amount of time researching dementia and visiting dementia support groups. The film is set against the stunning backdrop of the Lake District and features two very established actors and longterm friends playing lovers coming to terms with a…
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“An Unravelling” by Elske Rahill
Irish author, Elske Rahill’s second novel is an epic beast. It follows the lives of four generations of women in a large family, over a particularly turbulent period. Molly is the matriarch of the family. She’s in her eighties and very much focused upon helping her granddaughters, Cara and Freya bring up their young children.…