WHITE SANDS: IN CONVERSATION WITH GEOFF DYER

Geoff Dyer, moderated by Sarah Waldram

Saturday, March 10, 6 pm | 80 RMB

Geoff Dyer dissolves genres and writes a blend of fiction, autobiography, travel writing, cultural criticism and literary theory, often laced with a sardonic and self-deprecating wit. His 14 books have won many awards including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism and the Somerset Maugham Prize.

His subjects vary wildly, from an ode to critic John Berger to how the First World War is remembered, to a book about his failure to write a book about DH Lawrence. His “non-fiction” book about jazz imaginatively reconstructs scenes from the lives of the greats, his “novels’ often harbor essays and critiques, while his latest book White Sands blends travel writing with some fictitious aspects in his search for the most vivid of experiences. Geoff Dyer is “perhaps the most brilliantly original practitioner of his generation”, according to Jan Morris, and “a national treasure” (Zadie Smith). Come join him discuss his writing life and critically acclaimed books. Geoff will be joined in conversation with Sarah Waldram, a publisher, literary translator and editor.

Geoff Dyer is the author of four novels: Paris Trance, The Search, The Colour of Memory, and Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi; a critical study of John Berger, Ways of Telling; and many genre-defying books: But Beautiful, The Missing of the Somme, Out of Sheer Rage, Yoga For People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Do It, The Ongoing Moment, Zona, about Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker, and Another Great Day at Sea: Life Aboard the USS George H W Bush. A collection of essays from the last twenty years entitled Otherwise Known as the Human Condition was published in the US in April 2011 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. His most recent book, White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World, was published in May 2016 (Pantheon, US; Canongate, UK). A new book, The Street Philosophy of Garry Winogrand, will be published in early 2018 by University of Texas Press.

Sarah Waldram has a background in Comparative Literature (English and Chinese). With long-term publishing experience in the UK (most recently at Bloomsbury and Oxford University Press), she is currently working as translator, editor and project manager at Intron/Wenhe Oriental in Beijing.