BBC Radio 4 has adapted three stories from the collection 'A Midlands Odyssey' edited by CAHA doctoral researcher Polly Stoker. Featured authors include Richard House, acclaimed novelist and Birmingham academic.
In September we highlighted the publication of A Midlands Odyssey, a new collection of stories inspired by Homer and set in the Midlands, which was co-edited by CAHA doctoral research student Polly Stoker.
Three of the stories in the collection have been adapted for BBC Radio 4's Shorts: Writing West sequence, including one by Birmingham lecturer and Booker-longlisted novelist Richard House. The stories are being broadcast on consecutive Sundays and are available for four weeks after broadcast on the BBC iPlayer service.
Polly’s doctoral research project is a study of creative reworkings of ancient Greek and Roman literature by contemporary women writers and of the ways in which such receptions intersect with feminist theory. A Midlands Odyssey is one way in which she is looking to make her work on modern versions of Classical literature accessible to a wider public. Polly said,
"The collection consists of ten responses to Homer's Odyssey and provides a fascinating snapshot of epic in the twenty-first century, as each writer tries to make sense of Odysseus and his homecoming in a contemporary Midlands' setting. The opportunity to work alongside practitioners of creative writing adds a new dimension to my research, comparing academic theory with artistic practice."
The book is the product of Polly’s collaboration with ‘Writing West Midlands’, for a "Communicating Ancient Greece and Rome" Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded initiative, led by the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama at the University of Oxford.
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