Early June at the University of Kent saw the UK’s first ever creative writing undergraduate conference, an event designed to provide ambitious and enthusiastic students of creative writing and literature an opportunity to present critical and creative work in their chosen field. Delegates from the universities of Warwick, Durham and East Anglia joined students from Kent to present on subjects such as poetic Jouissance, Jeremy Paxman’s view on poetry, Heidegger’s notion of Enframing, the innovative poetry of Niels Lyngsø and the relation between word and image in the translation of poetry. The conference was lead by keynote speakers and poets Kate Duckney of UEA graduate creative writing program, Manchester-based performer Anna Percy and Faber & Faber’s Sam Riviere. An evening event held at The Parrot in town played host to the comedy stylings of Pierre-Pierre, of Edinburgh Fringe and Lattitude festivals fame, as well as local rapper ‘H’, a maverick of the mic with a passion for freestyling and was all introduced with readings by students from the School of English’s Innovative and Avant Garde Poetry module. Vox 2014 was a day to remember for creative writing students at Kent and beyond, a milestone in academic co-operation at a higly formative pre-career stage.
Conference review by Sam O’Hana-Grainger