Wardrobe love letters, Dylan Thomas’ impact on pop culture and progress in women’s football are all part of Sheffield Hallam University’s event programme for this year’s Off the Shelf Festival of Words

Press contact: Emma Griffiths | e.griffiths@shu.ac.uk

Every year, Hallam academics curate a series of free events for the festival which is delivered by the University of Sheffield and supported by Sheffield Hallam University and Arts Council England.

Roger Bateman, Director of Sheffield Creative Industries Institute, said: “We are very excited to present this year’s programme of events as part of Off the Shelf. These events reflect the diverse specialisms and talents of our expert staff, student and alumni from within the Creative Industries. Our carefully curated line-up spans genres and interests, from classics to video games – there is something for everyone. 

“Off the Shelf brings some of the best literary talent to Sheffield each year and we’re delighted to be able to welcome the public onto our campus to join in dynamic discussions, screenings and workshops.”

Highlights this year include:

• Hallam PhD graduate and sports broadcaster Carrie Dunn, who will be talking about her latest book Woman Up: Pitches, Pay and Periods – The Progress and Potential of Women’s Football, which has been shortlisted for the Vikki Orvice Award for Women’s Sports Writing at the 2024 Sports Books Award. The book looks at how the women’s game went from well attended matches in the late nineteenth century to an outright ban from 1921 to the modern profile of the game and its star players. 
• What links Dylan Thomas and Taylor Swift? Dylan Thomas and pop culture will explore the impact of Thomas’ work 70 years on, including links to modern theatre,the Star Wars franchise and Taylor Swift’s music. 
• Sheffield Hallam’s Game Designer in Residence Tom Battey will talk through the unique challenges of interactive fiction in Audience becomes Author. What if we could persuade Romeo not to take the poison? Or what if he ended up underneath the wrong window in the first place? How can we write compelling stories when the reader can affect the outcome?  
• Armchair Cinema, will look back at how films originally made for the big screen became major TV events in the 70s and 80s and pushed the boundaries for sex, violence and language on TV. This event explores new research by Sheffield Hallam Emeritus Fellow, Dr Sheldon Hall, utilising extracts from rare archival sources and a screening of the only surviving 35mm print of the 1972 film, The Heartbreak Kid, from the British Film Institute archive. 

Alongside this there will also be multiple interactive workshops by current researchers from Sheffield Hallam:

• Wardrobe love letters, a workshop in which PhD researcher Wendy Ward is asking you to bring one of your well-loved items of clothing to celebrate its special place in your heart and explore people’s relationships with their clothes.
• In a creative writing masterclass, PhD students and novelists Molly Aitken and Sophie Parkes and historian Alison Twells will explore how we can shine a light on the stories of women of the past, telling their stories with accuracy but in a way that will engage modern readers.
• Words Rewritten will look at the ways Pride and Prejudice has been adapted to stay culturally significant and encourage participants to play with the text and produce a collective interpretation of Pride and Prejudice for the 21st century.
• Linguist Dr Jodie Clark will be sharing her perspectives on the creative possibilities of language and sharing inspiring tips to find a cure for writer’s block in an online workshop. 
• As part of a wider exhibition in Graves Art Gallery, artist Yuen Fong Ling and graphic designer Jon Cannon will be discussing the visual impact and use of text in public monuments to decolonise public spaces. The interactive workshop will create a series of public art proposals, monuments and memorials for communities that do not get the opportunity to take part. 
• Clare Jenkins and Stephen McClarence will be discussing their new book, Teatime at Peggy’s, and how they revisited and recycled material like journals and audio recordings for the book.

The full programme for the entire Festival has been announced and tickets are now available on the Off the Shelf website.