MIR (The Mechanics Institute Review) will be holding its third and final live event of the academic year on Friday, July 5th (Keynes Library, 43 Gordon Square, 6:30 pm). The event will include eight readings, including six from current Birkbeck BA and MA creative writing students and two guest speakers: Sarah Leipciger, author of three novels including the acclaimed Moon Road (Doubleday UK/Penguin Canada 2024) andTony White, author of six novels including Foxy-T (Faber, 2003) and The Fountain in the Forest (Faber, 2018).
The MIR Live team
Sarah Leipciger is the author of three novels: The Mountain Can Wait (Tinder Press 2015), Coming up for Air (Doubleday UK 2020, now being adapted for stage with the Leipzig Opera House) and most recently, Moon Road (Doubleday UK/Penguin Canada 2024). She has published several short stories and written op-eds for The Guardian and The Toronto Star. She has worked as Writer in Residence in various London prisons, and is currently working towards a PhD in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths University. Sarah is an Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University, as well as a tutor at City Lit.
“Moon Road is a slow-burn story about people who are learning to live with the unthinkable and the unknowable. Leipciger has written an intelligent, nuanced book.” The Times
Tony White is the author of six novels including Foxy-T (Faber, 2003) and The Fountain in the Forest (Faber, 2018), three novellas, one work of non-fiction, and numerous short stories published in anthologies, journals and exhibition catalogues. A frequent performer of his fiction, White has been writer-in-residence at the Science Museum, at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, and for the Croatian city of Split. His reviews and articles have appeared in The Guardian, Irish Times, the Idler and 3am Magazine. Screen credits include scriptwriter on The Toxic Camera by Jane and Louise Wilson, and ivy4evr an interactive drama for mobile phones with Blast Theory for Channel 4. He is currently an Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London, and has just been appointed a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund.
‘White is always convivial company. His books are characterised by stylistic innovation, a feeling for place, a love of rogues and rebels.’ The Guardian