麻豆社

M J Hyland is an ex-lawyer, essayist, short story writer and the author of three multi-award-winning novels. She is also a lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Manchester. Her latest novel 鈥楾his is How鈥櫶� (Canongate)听was described in unsentimental terms by the New York Times as 鈥楿nflinching, absorbing, morally complex鈥�. How does M J teach her students to avoid the scented trap of sentimentality in their work?

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Critic, writer, broadcaster and emeritus Merton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford John Carey, is the author of 鈥榃hat Good are the Arts鈥�, 鈥楾he Intellectuals and the Masses鈥�, and has recently published his memoir 鈥楾he Unexpected Professor鈥� (Faber).听 He's also one of a hundred men who鈥檝e chosen poems for a new anthology called 鈥楶oems that make grown men cry鈥�. For the Verb John considers the sentimental writing of Lawrence Sterne and Dickens.

Ross Sutherland is a writer, performer and film maker who has published 3 volumes of poetry (Penned in the Margins). For this week鈥檚 SentimentiVerb we鈥檝e asked him to transform Ezra Pound鈥檚 imagist masterpiece -听 鈥業n a Station on the Metro鈥� 鈥� into his own sentimental wonder-work.

Barb Jungr is a writer, lyricist and award winning singer who has recently released an album of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen songs, 鈥楬ard Rain鈥� (Kristalyn). Barb sings Dylan's 鈥楽ara鈥� and Cohen's 鈥榃ho by Fire鈥� and talks about how the performance of songs affects our emotions. Barb is from a family of weepers and believes sentimentality should be celebrated.