79 research outputs found
King Arthur Way - Walking Publics/Walking Arts (AHRC)
No full textWalking Publics/Walking Arts is a research projectfunded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council exploring the potential of the arts to sustain, encourage and more equitably support walking during and recovering from a pandemic.
I have two projects of mine featured in the exhibition:
https://walkcreate.gla.ac.uk/portfolio/the-herepath-project-kevan-manwaring/
https://walkcreate.gla.ac.uk/portfolio/king-arthur-way-kevan-manwaring/
The King Arthur Way is a brand new long-distance pilgrimage route (or ‘legendary walk’) devised by author and long-distance walker Kevan Manwaring, stretching across south-west England – it tells the story of King Arthur, whose legend is intrinsic to the psychogeography of the area. Starting at the dramatic sea-castle of Tintagel (the place of Arthur’s conception and Merlin’s Cave) and culminating in his final resting place, Glastonbury Abbey and the Isle of Avalon, this 153-mile-long walk is a mythic pilgrimage taking in key sites along the way that will bring the story of King Arthur alive. Along the way, the historical and archaeological evidence will seek to reveal the truth behind Arthur – a composite of traditions, a clash of myth and history.
The idea of a walk being a valid work of art in itself is something the artist Richard Long and others have explored. #WalkCreate offers a platform for modern creative-critical practitioners who use walking as a mode of artistic enquiry
Green Words: an anthology of natural words from West Dorset
No full text‘Green Words’ is a walking & writing wellbeing project that will take place in the Bridport area of West Dorset in Spring 2023. The idea is to lead short inspiring walks in the local area to encourage those who would not normally go for a nature walk to learn to appreciate the biodiversity on their doorstep and at the same time improve their health and wellbeing. The walks will cover a variety of terrain appealing to a range of abilities from those with limited mobility to the confident walker. Guided creative writing workshops (also FREE) will be held in Bridport’s Literary and Scientific Institute on East Street following each walk led by an experienced facilitator, Dr Kevan Manwaring, who is the Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Arts University Bournemouth, and a keen walker. Over 10 weeks ‘green words’ will be nurtured and honed, leading to an anthology co- designed and co-produced by the group – with contributions of poems, prose, photographs, and drawings. The anthology will be launched at a final showcase, held in Bridport Arts Centre.
The project, initiated by Bridport-based Dr Manwaring, is funded by the Dorset Community Fund, with the support of Mick Smith, director of Bridport Arts Centre, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2023 with a range of events. The Arts Centre is keen to promote environmental initiatives and awareness-raising as part of its core goals
GOLEM Speaks
No full textDr Kevan Manwaring is an alumnus of the University of Leicester, lecturer and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. During 2014-18 he under took a Creative Writing PhD, involving practice-based research into the novel form. He won a national science fiction prize with his novel, Black Box, where he first star ted to write about Artificial Intelligence. At Leicester he won several commissions from the Centre for New Writing, including GOLEM Speaks
Heavy Weather: a creative intervention
No full textWeaving history, literature, and environmental humanities with sections of life-writing (travel-writing based upon various long-distance walks), this hybrid form explores narratives of Climate Change from the very earliest (eg, Ruskin's observation in the 19th Century) to the very latest (eg news reports from the summer of 2019). It is the culmination of a wide range of research from the archival to the experiential.
This was a creative keynote for the Gothic Nature symposium, University of Roehampton, September, 2019. It was edited and published in the peer-reviewed Gothic Nature journal in Spring, 2021.
Manwaring, K. (2021) HEAVY WEATHER: A Creative Intervention.
Gothic Nature. 2, pp. 285-294. Available from: https://gothicnaturejournal.com
The Ecological Imaginary in Literature and Other Media: The Nature of Fantasy
No full textFrom Gilgamesh to Gawain and the Green Knight, the Brothers Grimm to Grimdark, the natural world has provided the backdrop for Fantasy since its earliest iterations. The playgrounds of childhood are often a writer’s first Fantasy landscape and can develop into fully fledged storyworlds. Do readers of Fantasy seek out the genre for a taste of this unsullied environment? Is it nostalgia for the lost Edens of childhood, a way to escape, or to find resilience and inspiration? And in a time of Climate Emergency, is the nature of Fantasy changing to reflect the challenges it presents? Can the blue-sky thinking of the Fantastic provide us with a useful tool for addressing what the United Nations has called ‘the defining crisis of our time’? This is a timely survey of the environmental aspects of Fantasy, with a unique focus on Fantasy sites and the real-world impact of Fantasy texts across media
The Knowing: A Fantasy an epistemological enquiry into creative process, form, and genre
No full textThis creative writing PhD thesis consists of a novel and a critical reflective essay. Both articulate a distinctive approach to the challenges of writing genre fiction in the 21st Century that I define as ‘Goldendark’ – one that actively engages with the ethical and political implications of the field via the specific aesthetic choices made about methodology, content, and form.
The Knowing: A Fantasy is a novel written in the High Mimetic style that, through the story of Janey McEttrick, a Scottish-Cherokee musician descended from the Reverend Robert Kirk, a 17th Century Episcopalian minister from Aberfoyle (author of the 1691 monograph, The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies), fictionalises the diasporic translocation of song- and tale-cultures between the Scottish Lowlands and the Southern Appalachians, and is a dramatisation of the creative process.
In the accompanying critical reflective essay, ‘An Epistemological Enquiry into Creative Process, Form and Genre’, I chart the development of my novel: its initial inspiration, my practice-based research, its composition and completion, all informed both by my practice as a storyteller/poet and by my archival discoveries. In the section ‘Walking Between Worlds’ I articulate my methodology and seek to defend experiential research as a multi-modal approach – one that included long-distance walking, illustration, spoken word performance, ballad-singing and learning an instrument. In ‘Framing the Narrative’ I discuss matters of form – how I engaged with hyperfictionality and digital technology in destabilising traditional conventions of linear narrative and generic expectation. Finally, in ‘Defining Goldendark’ I articulate in detail my approach to a new ethical aesthetics of the fantasy genre
'The Rememberers' (We Are A Many-Bodied Singing Thing)
No full textFocus: Researching and writing an ecological short story about endangered species.
‘We Are a Many-Bodied Singing Thing’ is an anthology of speculative fiction and poetry inspired by endangered species, commissioned by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds ‘Back from the Brink’ project and published in 2020. The brief was for positive speculative writing that raised awareness about 28 threatened species highlighted by the project, including the Violet Click Beetle, the Royal Splinter Cranefly, Eagle’s-claw Lichen, Coral-tooth Fungi, Knothole Moss and the Noctule Bat. Using the ‘Back from the Brink’ resources as a starting point, the author researched a cross-section of endangered species. He combined this with field research, visiting ancient oaks in situ, various botanical gardens, the insect house at Cotswold Wildlife Park, and the Eden Project in Cornwall. The challenge was to then turn this scientific information into a creative narrative. When contemplating current and imminent species extinction it is very easy to slide into despair. As with much contemporary fiction that contemplates the stark existential threat of the Climate Emergency the predictable pathway (in terms of the storyworld paradigm) is one of dystopia. Utopia is a lot harder to imagine. But perhaps a more nuanced and realistic conceptualisation is one Margaret Atwood called ‘ustopia’. And so, this is the approach the author takes. His near-future narrative imagines a world with many problems, but like Pandora’s Box, there is also, critically, hope. ‘The Rememberers’ in Kevan’s story are a group of ecological resistance fighters who use their memories as storage for the minutiae of endangered species. This co-opts Cicero’s ‘method of loci’ (from De Oratore) and turns it into a kind of ark. As a professional storyteller and performance poet, the author has made a study of mnemonic devices and has used them extensively in his performance to memorize text (see The Bardic Handbook, Gothic Image, 2006). This long-term experiential research (1998-) has informed the story in this anthology. The story has been ‘tested’ out on live audiences (via virtual open mics during the 2020 lockdown), including during ‘Writing the Earth’ (AUB, April 2021), the 2-day symposium exploring creative writing and the environment organised by the author, in which creative responses to the climate crisis were extensively discussed with students and a range of guest speakers. ‘The Rememberers’ encourages readers to commit to action, while demonstrating the power of words, especially when embodied. The effort required to learn something by heart is an act of honouring. As a regional organiser for the national annual recitation contest founded by former Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, ‘Poetry by Heart’, the author has seen this first hand: how committing a text to memory can be very empowering – which is the dramatic arc of the story’s main protagonist. Thus, the story itself explores the mnemonic process and the valuation of ecological knowledge within ‘storied’ communities. The short story that resulted from this range of research was included in the published anthology from the RSPB
Geradflügler aus Ostafrika (Orthopteroidea, Dermapteroida und Blattopteroida).
No full textEs werden die orthopteroiden Insekten behandelt, welche H. Knipper zwischen dem 7. Januar und dem 10. Dezember 1952 in Ostafrika sammelte. Der größte Teil des Materials stammt aus dem nordöstlichen Tanganyika; außerdem wurde auch eine kleine Anzahl Arten hinzugenommen, welche er während einer Unterbrechung der Hinreise in und um Mogadishu (Mogadiscio) eintrug. Bei den neubeschriebenen Arten wurden auch von D. K. McE. Kevan und anderen Personen gesammelte Exemplare einbezogen. Zwei neue Acridoidea-Arten aus Nordost-Tanganyika, von denen keiner der beiden Verfasser Material sammelte, werden ebenfalls beschrieben. Ökologische Angaben werden für fast alle, biologische für einige Arten gemacht. 34 Arten einbegriffen, welche nur bis zur Gattung bestimmt werden können, werden für Tanganyika gemeldet: 2 Arten Phasmida, 3 Gryllacridoidea, 16Tettigonioidea, 13 Grylloidea, 1 Tridactyloidea, 4 Tetrigoidea, 78 Acridoidea, 2 Dermapteroida, 23 Mantodea und 11 Blattodea. 16 weitere Arten Acridoidea und eine Art Mantodea werden lediglich aus Somalia, eine weitere Art Acridoidea wird aus Somalia, Kenya und Abessinien gemeldet. Nachstehende Arten und Formen werden von Kevan neu beschrieben: Tettigonioidea: Homorocoryphus curvipennis; Acridoidea: Usambilla affinis, Parepistaurus rufijianus, Caloptenopsis somalica, Kassongia orientalis, K. vittata, Acrotylus knipperi, A. trifasciatus, A. t. ab. roseus, Pycnodictya galinieri ab. citrina.
Ferner wird das bisher unbekannte 9 von Orthochtha lindneri Kevan, 1955, beschrieben.Nomenklatorische Handlungenknipperi Kevan, 1961 (Acrotylus), spec. n.trifasciatus Kevan, 1961 (Acrotylus), spec. n.somalica Kevan, 1961 (Galoptenopsis), spec. n.curvipennis Kevan, 1961 (Homorocoryphus), spec. n.orientalis Kevan, 1961 (Kassongia), spec. n.vittata Kevan, 1961 (Kassongia), spec. n.rufijianus Kevan, 1961 (Parepistaurus), spec. n.lindneri (Kevan, 1955) (Ramulus), comb. n. hitherto Gratidia lindneri Kevan, 1955affinis Kevan, 1961 (Usambilla), spec. n.This paper gives an account of the Orthopteroid insects collected by H. Knipper in East Africa between 7 January and 10 December, 1952. Most of the material is from N. E. Tanganyika, but a few species from the vicinity of Mogadishu (Mogadiscio), Somalia, taken en route for Tanganyika, are also listed. In the case of new species, specimens collected by D. K. McE. Kevan and other persons are included. Two new species of Acridoidea from N. E. Tanganyika not collected by either author are also described. Ecological notes are given for nearly all, biological notes for several species. Including 34 species which cannot be determined beyond genus, 2 species of Phasmida, 3 of Gryllacridoidea, 16 of Tettigonioidea, 13 of Grylloidea, 1 of Tridactyloidea, 4 of Tetrigoidea, 78 of Acridoidea, 2 of Dermapteroida, 23 of Mantodea and 11 of Blattodea are recorded from Tanganyika. Furthermore, 16 species of Acridoidea and one species of Mantodea are recorded from Somalia only, one more species of Acridoidea from Somalia, Kenya and Abyssinia. The following are described by Kevan as new: - Tettigonioidea: Homorocoryphus curvipennis; Acridoidea: Usambilla affinis, Parepistaurus rufijianus, Caloptenopsis somalica, Kassongia orientalis, K. vittata, Acrotylus knipperi, A. trifasciatus, A. t. ab. roseus, Pycnodictya galinieri ab. citrina.
In addition, the previously unknown female Orthochtha lindneri Kevan, 1955 is described.Nomenclatural Actsknipperi Kevan, 1961 (Acrotylus), spec. n.trifasciatus Kevan, 1961 (Acrotylus), spec. n.somalica Kevan, 1961 (Galoptenopsis), spec. n.curvipennis Kevan, 1961 (Homorocoryphus), spec. n.orientalis Kevan, 1961 (Kassongia), spec. n.vittata Kevan, 1961 (Kassongia), spec. n.rufijianus Kevan, 1961 (Parepistaurus), spec. n.lindneri (Kevan, 1955) (Ramulus), comb. n. hitherto Gratidia lindneri Kevan, 1955affinis Kevan, 1961 (Usambilla), spec. n
Lost Islands: inventing Avalon, destroying Eden
No full textIn this interdisciplinary examination of the cultural history of islands, the author draws upon folklore, mythology, literature, popular culture, and environmental science to delve into humanity’s long fascination with islands. Drawing upon extensive field research undertaken exploring islands off the coast of Britain (Iona; Lundy; Bardsey; Isles of Scilly; Isle of Man; Holy Island; St Michael’s Mount; Isle of Wight; the Western Isles), which included a week’s solo writing retreat on the tiny Bardsey Island off the tip of the Llyn Peninsula, northwest Wales; as well as archival research pouring over early accounts of explorers; the experiential research as a professional storyteller enthralling audiences with tales of magical islands; and the latest climate science on the impact of Global Warming on sea levels and migration; Lost Islands attempts to understand our collective fascination with islands, real and imaginary. The way we have tendency to narrativize islands, projecting our desires and fears upon them (a tendency with antecedents back to the earliest of literature, such as the ‘echtrai’ or wonder voyages of Celtic saints such as St Brendan), show that an island can be an act of the imagination as well as a geographical fact. Interweaving erudite analysis with personal embodied anecdote, and an interdisciplinary approach, Lost Island challenges the islandisation of disciplines and traditions. A study of the littoral and the liminal, the monograph adopts a hybrid style blending the creative and critical to bring alive the ‘threshold’ quality of such places, sometimes described as ‘thin places’. The result is a kind of palimpsest of different texts and modes of thinking, and as such Lost Islands (illustrated throughout by the author’s own photographs) is research ‘for’ islands as well ‘through’ and ‘into’ them, via a creative-critical practice (Frayling, 1993)
Supplement to "A revisional monograph of the Chrotogonini" (Orth. Pyrgomorphidae)
No full textA year or two ago, the author published a monograph of the Chrotogonini
(Kevan, 1959). This contained a very comprehensive bibliography
and full synonymies for the different genera and species, but, as
is inevitable in such cases, there were a few minor errors and olle or
two omissions which should be corrected. One of the missing type specimens
has come to light and is also reported on. A number of references
have also appeared since the Monograph lwent to press and opportunity
is now taken to bring the bibliography more up to date. Not included
in the following are references made by Kevan (1959 a), since that article
was published consecutively and together with the Monograph, and
citations from it would be redundant. Neither are additional locality
records for the various species 'which have since come to hand included
since they add nothing to the known pattern of distribution.Peer reviewe
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