---
layout: post
status: publish
published: true
title: First Fictions Festival at Sussex

wordpress_id: 1869
wordpress_url: https://www.martineve.com/2012/01/24/first-fictions-festival-at-sussex/
date: !binary |-
  MjAxMi0wMS0yNCAyMDozOTo0MiArMDEwMA==
date_gmt: !binary |-
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categories:
- Literature
- Conferences
- Academia
tags:
- First Fictions
- Conferences
comments: []
---
<p><img src="https://www.martineve.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/ian-martin2-1024x741.jpg" alt="Ian Rankin and Martin Paul Eve" title="Ian Rankin and Martin Paul Eve" style="width:750px;" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1870" /><br />
<i>Ian Rankin and Martin Paul Eve</i></p>
<p>Last weekend, the 20th to 22nd of January 2012, saw the inaugural event of the First Fictions Festival at the University of Sussex. Having been a key behind-the-scenes organizer I just wanted to post a thank you to all involved for a succesful weekend. We had headline events from Ian Rankin (in which it emerged that he, like me, had harboured aspirataions of pursuing a Ph.D on Thomas Pynchon, only to be told he'd only get funding for Muriel Spark and so defected!), the judging panel for the First Graphic Novel Competition (won by <a href="http://www.brokenfrontier.com/headlines/p/detail/gareth-brookes-wins-first-fictions-graphic-novel-competition">Gareth Brooks</a>), Adam Roberts, Elleke Boehmer and a whole host of other academic papers and fictions writers.</p>
<p>Sadly, my attendance on the third day was curtailed by illness, but with any luck, this is just the start of a bigger series of events, in partnership with Myriad Editions.</p>