Author Thomas Glave joins the Department of English as an Honorary Professor
The Department of English is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Thomas Glave as Honorary Professor. Glave is Professor of English and Creative Writing at the State University of New York at Binghamton and author of the award-winning fiction collection Whose Song? and Other Stories (2000). His essay collection Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent (2005) also received numerous international awards. The anthology Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles (2008) won Glave’s second Lambda Literary Award, whilst his fifth book is a second collection of essays, Among the Bloodpeople: Politics and Flesh (2013).
Professor Glave has a long-standing relationship with the department and university, having initially been the 2013-14 visiting writer for the Centre for New and International Writing (CNIW). During this visit, Glave held a masterclass for MA and PGR students on ‘Legacies of Slavery: A Writer’s Reflections on Blackness and Queerness’ as part of the Centre for the Study of International Slavery’s events. CNIW was delighted to welcome Professor Glave a second time, as the 2020-21 Hope Street Writer in Residence, a programme of teaching and new work that CNIW co-hosts with The White Review. Glave shared this newly-commissioned work, entitled ‘A Reminder Letter to England’, for the first time during a CNIW public event in April 2021 chaired by the department’s Dr Lucienne Loh. As part of the residency Glave also held two masterclasses for students studying postcolonial texts, in which he spoke to the heart of the global political issues inspiring both the Black Lives Matter and Decolonising the Curriculum movements by engaging with the complex dimensions of racism and the legacies of empire in contemporary society. Two undergraduates, Kaya Purchase and Elle Donnelly, wrote essays in response to the masterclasses, and they have been published on the CNIW website.
As part of his honorary chair at Liverpool, Professor Glave will hold an annual masterclass for students on the themes of empire and racism and will also contribute creative writing classes. Head of English, Professor Greg Lynall, said: "Professor Glave’s previous visits have been extremely popular, inspiring brilliant work from our students and providing them with an importance space in which they can discuss complex issues such as race and identity, so it’s wonderful that his association with us will be continuing". On his appointment, Professor Glave said: "I feel honoured indeed to have been invited to work amongst the distinguished body of scholars and writers in the University of Liverpool’s Department of English. The best gift yet will be all the opportunities to learn more about colleagues’ work and interests, and to engage with the University’s enthusiastic students".