Ali Smith to be awarded the Bodley Medal as part of Oxford Literary Festival

Celebrated Scottish author, playwright, academic and journalist Ali Smith is to be awarded the Bodleian Libraries’ highest honour, the Bodley Medal, for her outstanding contribution to the world of literature.

The accolade, awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the worlds of books and literature, libraries, media and communications, science and philanthropy, will be presented as part of the 2024 Oxford Literary Festival. The specific event is: The Bodley Lecture and Award of the Bodley Medal: Life and Work; where Ali Smith will be in conversation with Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian, and will take place on Thursday 21st March, at 6 pm at the Sheldonian Theatre.

First presented in the seventeenth century, the Medal tradition was revived in 2002. Previous recipients of the Bodley Medal, when given in conjunction with the Bodley Lecture have included Peter Carey (2012), Dame Hilary Mantel (2013), Professor Dame Mary Beard (2016), Sir Kazuo Ishiguro (2019), Zadie Smith (2022), and Colm Tóibín (2023).

Described as ‘Scotland’s Nobel laureate-in-waiting’, Smith is a multi-award-winning author whose works have won the Goldsmith’s Prize, Orwell Prize, Costa Best Novel Award and the Women’s Prize. She has also been shortlisted for the Booker Prize four times. Her novels and short story collections include The Accidental, Hotel World, How to be Both and the Seasonal Quartet. Her most recent novel was Companion Piece, a story that switches between post-Brexit lockdown Britain and the Middle Ages and examines questions about opening ourselves to other times, species, histories and possibilities.

Smith’s work explores themes including lifeforce and language, art and time, loss and history, aesthetic structure and imagination, connection and love. As an acclaimed novelist and short story writer, she is also a playwright, academic and journalist. She’s also written for The Guardian, New Statesman, The Scotsman and The New York Times.

Speaking of the award, Smith said: “I couldn’t be more amazed and delighted at the gracious Bodley Medal coming my way. Particularly because it comes from one of the world’s greatest libraries. Libraries are the ultimate source of sources – of thought; of knowledge; of history; of art; of language’s own history and process and power; of the relationship between imagination, truth and fiction; themselves they’re the prime and communal source of every book. I’ll keep it on my desk as a talisman.”

The ceremony will feature Ali Smith in conversation with Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian and Head of Gardens, Libraries and Museums at Oxford University. Covering Smith’s life, inspiration and literature, the event is to be held in the Sheldonian Theatre and is one of the highlights of the Oxford Literary Festival programme. The medal will be presented at the end of the Lecture.

Of the forthcoming presentation of the Bodley Medal and event, Richard Ovenden, said: “Ali Smith is an extraordinary writer. Her work considers the timely and timeless complexities of our world with a great sensitivity. She combines precision with playfulness and a highly original voice, inviting readers to engage with her work in inventive – even mischievous – new ways. Smith’s powerful writing has a conscience of its own; it invites and encourages us to consider our moral responsibilities to society. With a fierce conviction that reading does not just change lives, but helps us to live better lives, Ali Smith is a highly appropriate recipient of the Bodley Medal.”

The medal presentation forms part of the following event: Ali Smith interviewed by Richard Ovenden, Thursday 21 March 2024, 6:00 pm – 7.00 pm, Sheldonian Theatre, Broad Street, Oxford.

Tickets should be booked in advance and are available at www.oxfordliteraryfestival.org The Bodleian Libraries will host an exciting programme of events as part of the Oxford Literary Festival 2024. Highlights include events related to the libraries’ collections and exhibitions, with a show and tell of Shakespeare’s First Folio, talks from the curators of Write Cut Rewrite and Chaucer: Here and Now, and a VIP evening experience of treasures, talks and champagne. The libraries will also offer literary walking tours of the city, the Duke of Humphries and dedicated literary walks for children and families. The full programme is available via their website.

ENDS

For further information, please contact Mae Cuthbertson via mae.cuthbertson@flint-culture.com

NOTES TO EDITORS:
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Event information
The Bodley Lecture & Award of the Bodley Medal: Life and Work
Ali Smith Interviewed by Richard Ovenden
Thursday, 21 March 2024, 6 – 7.30 PM
Sheldonian Theatre, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3AZ
£8 – £20

The Bodleian Libraries full Oxford Literary Festival programme is available here.

About the Bodleian Libraries
The Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford is the largest university library system in the United Kingdom. It includes the principal University library – the Bodleian Library – which has been a legal deposit library for 400 years; as well as 26 libraries across Oxford including major research libraries and faculty, department, and institute libraries. Together, the Libraries hold more than 13 million printed items, over 80,000 e-journals and outstanding special collections including rare books and manuscripts, classical papyri, maps, music, art, and printed ephemera. Members of the public can explore the collections via the Bodleian’s online image portal at digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk or by visiting the exhibition galleries in the Bodleian’s Weston Library. For more information, visit www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

About the Bodley Medal
The Bodley Medal is the highest award bestowed by the Bodleian Libraries, presented to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the worlds of books and literature, libraries, media and communications, science and philanthropy. The original Bodley Medal was struck in 1646 in honour of Sir Thomas Bodley (1545–1613), founder of the Bodleian Library. During major renovations of the Bodleian Library’s reading rooms in 2001, which included the replacement of the roof of Duke Humfrey’s Library, copper from the Library’s roof was used to create a set of 100 replicas in bronze of the original commemorative medal. The new Bodley Medal was struck at the Royal Mint in 2001 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Bodleian Library in 1602, and the restoration of the medieval library room, Duke Humfrey’s Library, which first opened to scholars in 1488. More information and a list of former winners can be found at www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about/libraries/bodley-medal.