Jenny Diski - A Celebration

University of Oxford Symposium

Convened by Dr Ben Grant with Keynote Speaker Blake Morrison

12 and 13th April 2021 at Rewley House, Department for Continuing Education

Jenny Diski sadly died in 2016, and the time is right for a celebration of her work.

Diski wrote in many genres, from novels and short stories, to memoirs, travel narratives, and books on human-animal relationships and the 1960s. She was also a prolific reviewer, who contributed regularly to the London Review of Books. Diski herself, though, refused to classify her writings: ‘Something about the distinction between being a fiction and a non-fiction writer distresses me’, she declared, ‘So I think of myself as a writer. Period’. And it is as a writer, first and foremost, that Diski is appreciated by her many admirers. No reader of hers can fail to be dazzled by her style, or struck by her formal playfulness and innovation.

This celebration of her work will help to place Diski where she belongs: as one of the most important writers of our time. Period.