PLACE 2020

PLACE 2020 is a digital project that officially launched the Centre for Place Writing in July 2020. As billions of people went into lockdown across the globe in early 2020 due to the Covid-19 virus the Centre for Place Writing invited some of the most acclaimed and distinctive thinkers, writers, artists and film-makers, along with members of the Centre and emergent new voices to examine what 'place' meant to them during this period of time. 

With access denied to many places local environments were explored in new ways, and places of the imagination came to the fore alongside sites of memory, virtual places, and many others besides. Then the world witnessed the most urgent call-to-action in recent memory when the historic ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests erupted across the globe and changed how we think about almost everything - including place.

The responses have been rich and varied and span across the globe. They include a dynamic mix of new writing (poetry, essay, commentary, reflection and story), films, photography and podcasts, which can be explored by clicking on the button below.

Visit the PLACE 2020 website

PLACE 2020 launches with: a short film by British filmmaker Andrew Kotting that reconfigures aspects of his moving image works which focus on the idea of place; poetry by the international award winning poet and sound artist Caroline Bergvall created during self-isolation in the Norwegian countryside; a photographic account of the Black Lives Matter protests in New York by activist and artist Lola Flash; a vivid memoir of pre Covid-19 adventures in the Amazonian jungle by one of Britain’s foremost place writers Iain Sinclair; an account of lockdown in New York by writer and cultural critic Sukhdev Sandhu; reflections on being a black woman in Essex by rising star in the visual art world Elsa James; a short film documenting lockdown around the globe by award winning director Andy Delaney to the words of Maya Angelou’s poem ‘Alone’ (read by her son); an evocative podcast by British-Canadian-Taiwanese author Jessica J. Lee, written and recorded from her apartment in central Berlin; a poetic response to the ‘curious hush’ encountered by Irish nature writer and essayist Kerri ní Dochartaigh; a record of a nightly walk around local common ground in Cumbria from Polly Atkin; an account of navigating the salt marshes and shoal waters of the east coast of England by ‘ancient sea punk’ C.C.O’Hanlon; a film by Essex University student Ela Kir that documents her lockdown experience in Istanbul; an essay on the relationship between space, place, and public memory by social historian Ken Worpole; a personal essay on her family’s experience of lockdown in West Yorkshire by winner of the Wainwright Prize for nature writing Amy Liptrot; a blogpost from Ecuador by young travel writer and explorer Jasper Hardman and a long article interwoven with links to stories, places, people and works by editor, writer and curator Gareth Evans.

PLACE 2020 also includes submissions by members of the Centre for Place Writing at Manchester Met including: a creative nonfiction piece by Rachel Lichtenstein on the lost landscape of the Polish shtetl; a poetry film featuring new arrivals to Manchester by Anjum Malik; tales from the Welsh coast by nature writer Paul Evans; a lyrical essay on place and time bymulti award winning poet and writer Jean Sprackland; an essay on Manchester’s riversby writer, musician and current PhD student Richard Skelton; a lockdown diary from Sheffield by award winning poet and writer Helen Mort and a short story imagining a changed new world by Andrew Michael Hurley. In addition Tim Cresswell (University of Edinburgh) – the first Visiting Professor in the Centre – has written a hybrid piece reflecting on the dominant histories of Morningside in Edinburgh and his reflections on being a newcomer to that place during the time of Covid-19.

PLACE 2020 is an on going project, with new work appearing every month throughout the year 2020 including forthcoming submissions from award winning writers on place including Anita Sethi, Tim Dee, Sarah Butler and many others. 

For further information please email the co-directors of the Centre: Dr David Cooper or Dr Rachel Lichtenstein