Silence Please

friends of the bodleian

Silence Please

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 Thursday 15 October 2026

  13.00–14.00 (UK time)

 At the Weston Library and online

  Free, all welcome

Book – attend in person 

Book – watch livestream 

About the event

Professor Kate McLoughlin will introduce her newly-edited anthology, Silence Please: A Poem for Every Kind of Quiet (due to be published on 8 October by Bodleian Library Publishing). Containing 100 poems, Silence Please ranges from Old English works such as Beowulf and The Wanderer to modern poems by Benjamin Zephaniah, Jane Hirshfield, and Sarah O. Adedeji. Famous names such as Shakespeare, Keats, Tennyson and Dickinson sit alongside lesser-known writers.

In this session, Kate will read from the anthology and discuss literary silences more broadly.

Speaker

Kate Mc Loughlin is Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford and author of the recent Silence: A Literary History (2026).

Event information

  • This event is free and open to all.

Attend in person

Watch livestream

  • You can also watch the livestream of this event on Zoom. You will receive instructions for joining the Zoom webinar in your confirmation email once you have booked your place. 
  • All times listed are UK time. 

Join Friends of the Bodleian

To enjoy closer access to the Bodleian, including exclusive events and priority access to online content, join the Friends today. For more information, email fob@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.


Book tickets

 15 October 2026

 13.00–14.00

     Free, all welcome

 At the Weston Library and online

Book – attend in person 

Book – watch livestream 


Contact

fob@bodleian.ox.ac.uk


More information


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