This week, on the 13th April 2021, would have marked the 115th birthday of Samuel Beckett. The writer was notoriously reluctant to celebrate the annual event, evident in the many letters he responded to throughout the years, such as in 1961 when Beckett wrote to Mary Hutchinson: “I shall not be in Paris for my birthday, nor at Ussy, perhaps at Etretat, or simply on the road with car. Please don’t give me anything, help me to forget the day.”
Beckett’s birthday was celebrated this year by the Journal of Beckett Studies who released a special issue on Beckett in the Contemporary Political Moment, edited by the Samuel Beckett Research Centre’s William Davies.
This special issue, (Volume 30, Issue 1) includes contributions by Rodney Sharkey, Hannah Simpson, Rina Kim, Ken Alba, Jonathan Heron, Will Davies and Trish McTigue. As well as a virtual roundtable on ‘Beckett, Celebrity and Crisis’ with Scott Hamilton, Rosaleen Maprayil, Jonathan McAllister, Matt McFrederick, Rodney Sharkey and Zoë Tweed.
You can read the issue here: https://www.euppublishing.com/toc/jobs/30/1