An internationally acclaimed biographer of the American author Jack Kerouac (pictured)will be at the University of Cambridge later this week to give a talk titled 'The Writer Kerouac, the mythological Kerouac, the popular Kerouac and the Real Kerouac'.

Gerald Nicosia’s talk has been organised by the Countercultural Research Studies Group. Open to all and free of charge, it will take place at 5pm on Friday 22 October on Room GR-05 at the Faculty of English, West Road.

Nicosia is author of "Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac" and an authority on the Beat Generation – a group of iconoclastic American writers who included Burroughs and Ginsberg.

On Saturday 23 October, in the tradition of Beat happenings, Nicosia will take part in a poetry reading and performance with members of the wacky Riprap Quartet. The event will take place at the Unitarian Church on Emmanuel Road, Cambridge, starting at 8pm. Tickets £5 on the door.

Taking part will be and KM Dersley and Malcolm Guite, who is Chaplain of Girton College as well as a poet and singer-songwriter.

Cambridge Countercultural Studies Research Group is an interdisciplinary group formed in 2007 to provide a forum to discuss research into notions of counterculture in its broadest sense. The Research Group includes academics, writers and film makers from outside the University.

“We are delighted to welcome Gerald Nicosia to Cambridge. It is a rare opportunity to examine Kerouac’s life and legacy through such expert eyes” says Yvonne Salmon, Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, who coordinates the Research Group with James Riley, Fellow of Wolfson College.

For more information about the Group email James Riley rjer2@cam.ac.uk or Yvonne Salmon yps1000@cam.ac.uk.

 

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