basgroes

‘Mum, my brain’: how I learned to walk, talk and even dance again after a devastating stroke at 36 I was riding high as a music journalist with a new book in the shops when I had what I thought was a migraine. In fact, it was a burst aneurysm and I needed emergency surgery. Two years into my recove...

'Thinking in binary terms of Before and After is limiting and false. The two time frames merge until a big bang-type crash happens.’ - Kieran Yates

Please follow Write in the Head, a creative writing program for survivors: writeinthehead.co.uk

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Here's a piece by @theguardian.com's Charlotte Higgins on how poetry can help people survive war mentally: www.theguardian.com/artanddesign....

Our book WRITING UNDER FIRE has writers from Ukraine and the Black Country in dialogue. All proceeds go to the Lviv Literary Festival.

bit.ly/3PTf0iq

I have resigned as member of the @teamlabouruk.bsky.social. It is not getting anything done. It is leaving healthcare, education & other areas in the lurch. Disabled people are targeted & the power of big companies is not addressed. Instead: disgusting Trumpian rhetoric. Extremely disappointing.

BS! Finally saw Big Special last eve - two extraordinarily gifted Black Country lads. Also discovered that my colleague Tom Hicks designed the artwork for the cover of their new record. Very cool indeed!

Nothing more satisfying than cooking meals with one’s own fresh produce. 🤓😎🥔🥔🥔🤗

At the Neo-Victorian Criminalities, Detection and Punishment conference today. Organised by Helen Davies and Maria Isabel Romero-Ruiz. Keynote is the amazing Claire Nally - great to meet her in person at last after reading her work on subcultures and on Irish fin-de-Siegel print culture.

Glitching AI bots; virtual imposter syndrome; autonomous military systems – what does it all mean? Together with David Devanny I am editing a special edition of Revenant on Haunted Technologies.

Tell us something we don’t know.

More info here: bit.ly/44c6VvZ

🇺🇦 In 2024, the Humanities team
@wlv_uni
published WRITING UNDER FIRE.

We have caught up with our Ukrainian contributors to see how they are faring. See Tetiana Belimova's update here: instagram.com/p/DKog_ulMatI/

Buy the book here: bit.ly/3Odzyly 📚

At our department's Researchmoot today, organised by @daisyeblack.bsky.social. 1st panel: Helen Davies on comic representations of Joseph Merrick, 'the Elephant Man'; Anastasia Novoselova on lexical/stylistic characteristics of book reviews + @basgroes.bsky.social on Atwood/ Alderman's collaboration

🔥🎇 Last week Wednesday, my team hosted an event with the wonderful @yomiadegoke.bsky.social where we chatted to her about The List and unveiled research into the public's memory. And great to see @alex-goody.bsky.social!

English Literature is thriving at Wolves. To join: lnkd.in/deRxjcbJ

Wonderful to see the BBC pay attention to the Virtual Reality experiments we have been running with our English Literature students: lnkd.in/dWkHjqKj.

If you want to join the most exciting English Literature course in the UK, go to lnkd.in/deRxjcbJ 👏

Here is Aleks, one of my students on my course Literature in the Digital Age explaining her creation of a 3D essay using Virtual Reality tools to show how agency, identity and social relationships have changed over the past 20 years.

Next steps in the Digital Humanities... Come along...

It's wonderful to see that my memoir RIGHT IN THE HEAD is receiving serious critical attention. See chapter 7 in Emma Aldwinckle's PhD thesis on Lived Experience of Chronic Illness and Disability: doi.org/10.25392/lei...

Emma's review in MEDIUM has over a 1000 likes:
medium.com/@emmaastra/b...

Glad to see the UK Parliamentary Committee on Prison Culture use our report on the @artscouncilengland.bsky.social Big Bookshare project.

* reading has wellbeing benefits for inmates
* we need tech in prisons to upskill prisoners

Full report, here: committees.parliament.uk/writtenevide...

Last week, my PhD student Lily breezed through the defence of her doctoral work on the representation of non-conscious cognition in contemporary British fiction.

She has a gifted mind and a tenacious spirit. In these times of darkness and distraction, I find a glimmer of hope in her achievement.

🖊️📚🧠 Our Arts Council England project WRITE IN THE HEAD is featured by the BBC in this excellent and deeply human article interviewing stroke survivors about our online creative writing programme for people with acquired brain injury. See: www.bbc.com/news/article...

Last week I started trialling VR technology on my module Literature in the Digital Age. The students are creating their own VR builds, 3D essays that offer the user a spatialised and embodied experience.

They loved this new way of communicating knowledge whilst building new skills.

Today I had the humbling pleasure of testing creative exercises w volunteer's at @wlvuni.bsky.social's Walsall campus for the Write in the Head project funded by @artscouncilengland.bsky.social.

Alice Cullinane is creating a story for BBC.

Tmrw we'll be at the Wolves Lit Fest bit.ly/3PBTP4h

YouTube video by School of Humanities, University of Wolverhampton Right in the Head: My Stroke Journey by Sebastian Groes - Chapter One (abridged with subtitles)

🧠🧠❤️‍🔥🔥To celebrate the release of the audio version of Right in the Head's Chapter One, Jetstone is temporarily offering the e-book 📚 at an discounted price of only *£2.49*: amzn.to/42xxX1Z

Listen to Chapter One, here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwW-...

🎸🥁Next week Sat, 1 Feb, 6PM, Wolverhampton, I'll be talking to Tiffany Murray about her riveting memoir growing up in the Rockfield Studios in the 1970s. ❤️‍🔥🔥

Come along to hear about her encounters w/
Queen
Hawkwind🤘🏼
& many more bands, singers,

Tickets here: bit.ly/4gKzYfi 👏🏼🙌🏼

🔥The English Team at the University of Wolverhampton
is proud to work with the amazing 🖊️
@yomiadegoke.bsky.social on the Wolverhampton Bookshare.
Free📚

Get reading❤️‍🔥

For more info: bit.ly/4auS8zw

Check out our BA English Literatures: bit.ly/44VlCmD

Here's a video www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNkX... featuring @jonmcgregor.bsky.social explaining the problems and benefits of doing creative writing with stroke survivors.

Come & talk to us on Sat 1 at the #wolveslitfest to test out some exercises!

More info here: bit.ly/3PBTP4h

He was a remarkable man. A free spirit with an incredibly perspective, incisive mind. His passing has come as a great shock to me. I wish everyone much strength in the coming times. x

@thestrokeassoc.bsky.social @differentstrokesuk.bsky.social
@artscouncilengland.bsky.social

On Sat 1 Feb, in Wolverhampton, the team delivering the Arts Council funded #writeinthehead project - creative writing for stroke survivors and people with ABI - invites volunteers, carers and healthcare professionals to test new exercises.

More info here: bit.ly/3PBTP4h #wolveslitfest

On Sat 1 Feb, I have the pleasure of chatting to
Tiffany Murray about her wonderful memoir growing up around the Rockfield Studios, bumping into Freddie Mercury, Ozzy Osbourne and... Hell's Angels.

Come along!

Book tickets, here: bit.ly/4gKzYfi #WolvesLitFest

🖊️🖊️✏📚📚 Next week Thursday I'm helping colleagues Liam Harrison and Roberta Garrett launch their book on Rachel Cusk, a phenomenal writer. Come along!

Cusk will read from her work.

This book is part of a series I co-edited for @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social. Proud to see this out in the world.

My research centre recently hosted a seminar on computational approach to the language of Kazuo Ishiguro.
You can now view the video, here: lnkd.in/daUwg_TG #CLSUK

"Because in creativity, there are no mistakes - only new ways of creating.”
― Julie Piatt
writingforwellbeing.co.uk
#creativity

On Friday eve, we held a memorial for Professor Ana-Karina Schneider, who passed away at a very young age, finding solace in poetry readings.

We worked together for over 20 years.

I'm devastated by her loss.

Next year, we'll organise a symposium in her name.
Farewell, AK.