In conversation with Nobel Laureate Mo Yan: from novelist to playwright

A conversation with Regent’s Honorary Fellow Professor Mo Yan will be introduced by Professor Sir Malcolm Evans, Principal of Regent’s Park College, Oxford. Literary critic and writer Professor Bart van Es (from Faculty of English at Oxford) will be the interviewer for the dialogue.

The event will serve as the inaugural lecture followed by the presentation of the Oxford-BNU Creative Writing Award 2024. The award was founded by the Nobel Laureate Mo Yan, based at Regent’s Park College, and is open to all students and staff members of Oxford University. Its aim is to facilitate international and cross-cultural diversity within the global literary community.

Mo Yan, the Chinese novelist and short story writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012, is renowned for his imaginative and humanistic fiction. His work, characterized by hallucinatory realism that merges folk tales, history, and the contemporary, has gained global recognition. While Mo's novels have been widely acclaimed, his plays, such as Jing Ke the Assassin, Farewell My Concubine, and Crocodile, are also gaining international prominence.

Mo Yan's contribution marks a significant milestone in world literature since the 1980s. His works have been translated into numerous languages, including English, French, Spanish, German, and Russian, among others, making them widely accessible worldwide and exerting a substantial influence in the international literary arena.

The programme for the afternoon is as follows:

4pm-5.15pm: In-conversations
5.15pm-5.45pm: Creative writing award ceremony