ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PLACE 2020 was conceived during the first weeks of the lockdown due to the Covid-19 crisis. This digital project replaced a planned launch of the Centre in the historic setting of Victoria Baths (the Grade II* listed Edwardian swimming pool and Turkish baths complex in Manchester) in June 2020, with performances by Iain Sinclair and Andrew Kotting amongst others, along with readings, film screenings and other live events. However, much like everything else at that time this event was cancelled. The Centre would like to thank Victoria Baths and particularly events co-ordinator Chris Lee, for all his hard work in the planning of this event. We very much hope to work with the Baths again in the near future.

After developing the idea for PLACE 2020 we worked at tremendous speed with Manchester Metropolitan University, during an extremely difficult and challenging time for everyone. This project would not have been possible without the help of many colleagues in the Department of English but we would especially like to thank Antony Rowland who supported the concept of PLACE 2020 in his role as Head of the Centre for Creative Writing, English Literature and Linguistics (CELL). Likewise we are very grateful for the support from Berthold Schoene (Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange, Faculty of Arts and Humanities) and Jess Edwards (Head of the Department of English) who have consistently championed our work in and on place writing over a number of years. 

We would also like to offer enormous thanks to photographer and designer Jonathan Juniper who has worked tirelessly, and with such creative flair on the website. A debt of gratitude is similarly due to Gareth Evans for his generous editorial support.

The Centre for Place Writing fully acknowledges the current lack of diversity in the literary field of place writing and is committed to changing the cultural landscape of the genre. We aim to play a leading role in actively reshaping the field through our public engagement activities, events, workshops, teaching and projects. This agenda will be at the forefront of the work that we do.

Primarily we would like to thank all of the contributors for responding so swiftly, and so imaginatively, to the deliberately open commission to write about what ‘place’ means to them in 2020 and into 2021 when we launched a new round of submissions. We are truly humbled by the breadth and depth of the contributions, which will remain here as an extraordinary record of this time.

For PLACE 2021 we would also like to thank the Creative NonFiction Magazine Hinterland for their generous collaboration in allowing us to republish three exciting new voices on place, who originally appeared in their quarterly print and digital magazine, based out of the University of East Anglia https://www.hinterlandnonfiction.com/our-story

Finally, we would like to thank our colleagues and co-founders of the Centre, Paul Evans and Jean Sprackland for their support, hard work and friendship. 

For further information contact the co-directors of the Centre:

Dr David Cooper: d.cooper@mmu.ac.uk

Dr Rachel Lichtenstein: r.lichtenstein@mmu.ac.uk

PLACE 2020 - 2021