The Holberg Conversation: "From the Mouths of Stories: New Songs for Old"

Stories from the past give us all a language of the imagination with which we can form new stories for the present:  Marina Warner and Tamim Al-Barghouti  will read from work in progress inspired by myths and legends,  from  the Thousand and One Nights and contemporary Europe to the poetry of ancient Babylon and Iraq today.

Professor Dame Marina Warner is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and Professorial Research Fellow at SOAS. Her works include studies of mythography and fairy tales, with an emphasis on the part played by women, as well as novels, short stories, and criticism. Her latest book is Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale (2014). A collection of short stories, Fly Away Home, will be published in autumn 2015.

Tamim Al-Barghouti is a poet and political scientist who specializes in post-colonial theory, state-building under occupation, and International Conflict. He has taught political science and international relations at Georgetown University, the Free University of Berlin and the American University in Cairo. He is currently a Consultant to the United Nations Economic and Social Committee for Western Asia.