Public Lecture: Dr Lucy Burns, 'Writing Abortion: Reflections on Larger than an Orange'
This event is hosted in collaboration with the Feminist Thinking Seminars, organised by students reading for the MSt in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies programme. Lucy Burns will also deliver a masterclass—‘Writing Shame: Navel Gazing, Subversion, and Subterfuge’—on Tuesday, 25th February, at 2 pm.

In her award-winning debut, Larger than an Orange (Chatto & Windus, 2021), Lucy Burns interweaves diary entries, poetic prose, and literary fragments to document her experience of undergoing an abortion. The book spans the days leading up to the procedure and the months following, capturing this life event’s physical, emotional, and psychological complexities while remaining resolutely pro-choice.

Four years after the publication of her experimental memoir, Larger than an Orange (Chatto & Windus, 2021), Lucy Burns revisits the ethical complexities of writing and publishing the book – and explores some of the unique challenges of writing about abortion.

This event will be introduced and moderated by Josephine Rosman.

Speaker Details:

Lucy Burns (she/her) is a Senior Lecturer in Prose at Liverpool John Moores University. Her first book, Larger than an Orange, was published by Chatto & Windus in 2021. It was named a 2021 Sunday Times Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the 2022 Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award. Lucy is currently working on a creative non-fiction book about the US liberal arts college, Black Mountain College.

Josephine Rosman (she/her) is a graduate of Oberlin College. She is currently reading for an MSt in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on the portrayal of female friendship in modern and contemporary women’s literature and feminist theory.

Further Details and Contacts:

This in-person event is free and open to all; however, registration is recommended. This event will not be recorded.

After the event, join us for a complimentary wine reception.
Date: 25 February 2025, 17:30
Venue: Wolfson College, Linton Road OX2 6UD
Venue Details: The Buttery; accessibility information available here: https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/accessibility-wolfson-college
Speaker: Dr Lucy Burns (Liverpool John Moores University)
Organising department: Oxford Centre for Life-Writing
Organisers: Josephine Rosman (University of Oxford), Dr Eleri Anona Watson (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: eleri.watson@ell.ox.ac.uk
Hosts: Josephine Rosman (University of Oxford), Dr Eleri Anona Watson (University of Oxford), Oxford Centre for Life Writing
Booking required?: Recommended
Booking url: https://oclw.web.ox.ac.uk/event/public-lecture-lucy-burns-writing-abortion-reflections-on-larger-than-an-orange
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Eleri Watson