‘What makes good radical writing?’A panel discussion with Anne Beech, Ian Bone, and Suzanne MooreWednesday 9th May, 7pmEntry £3, redeemable against any purchase
On Tuesday 1st May the first recipient of the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing shall be announced. The process of creating a radical book prize has brought up interesting questions as to how to evaluate radical writing. Is the primary goal to effectively communicate ideas? And if so, how do we measure its effectiveness? How do we measure it’s radicalism? Must it be accessible to all readers, or is there a place for pedantic or even obscure writing?
On his influential blog, ‘Anarchist in the UK’, Ian Bone posed a fundamental, and as-yet-unresolved, question about radical writing: is it a matter of “writing about what you want people to know, or what they want to know?”
Based on their experiences within the radical wing of contemporary journalism and book publishing, our speakers will navigate the tensions between vanguardism and populism that have guided radical writing and actions for the last century, and reflect on how these tensions are manifested today.Please join us as we tackle these questions in what will be an illuminating discussion on the forms and contents of radical communication.
About the participantsAnne Beech is the Commissioning Editor and Managing Director of Pluto Press.
Ian Bone is founder of the anarchist paper Class War, author of the books ‘Decade of Disorder’, ‘Anarchist’, and ‘Bash the Rich,’ and a long-time political agitator. He blogs at http://ianbone.wordpress.com/
Suzanne Moore is an award-winning columnist for the Guardian. She also writes for the Mail on Sunday.
The session will be chaired by Tess Carota.
Ian Bone's an entertaining public speaker, and it's a topic close to my heart.
