writing with: transversal stories and voices

We have not heard about the thing to put things in, the container for the thing contained. That is a new story. ~ Ursula K Le Guin

Taking its cue from Ursula K Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction – which reimagines narrative not as a linear arc of conquest but a container to gather and ‘hold things that bear meanings and enable relationships’ – this event proposes an evening of readings. If writing, by ceaselessly shattering common usage and perceptions of language, brings forth a ‘new language’ and the yet ‘un–thought’, so too does reading – here understood as a relational and collective act. Reading becomes a process of inhabiting, translating, and transforming the text.

The gathering functions as a kind of ‘carrier bag’ – a vessel for holding voices, fragments, and temporalities. The event unfolds through a series of short readings that resist closure and invite collective engagement. Voice becomes continuous with what it reads, while also altering it – construing a space of communication, resonance, and shared knowledge. Through conversational exchange and the labour of reading, the event explores acts of being with others through words.

Image: The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K Le Guin, AA Gallery, October 2025. Photograph by Elena Andreea Teleaga.

Please get in touch to let us know of any access requirements that you might have and how we can best accommodate these. If you are unable to attend physically but would like to participate in the event remotely please email publicprogramme@aaschool.ac.uk