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Remaking the Voyage and Lowry During Lockdown, 2020

The 2020 Lowry Lounge was, like everything else that year, affected by the Covid pandemic, when lockdown restrictions prevented the Bluecoat hosting an event.

During Lockdown 2020

The 2020 Lowry Lounge was, like everything else that year, affected by the Covid pandemic, when lockdown restrictions prevented the Bluecoat hosting an event. However, three of the Firminists - the group that organises the Lounge with the Bluecoat - participated in an online event, the Malcolm Lowry Colloquium which is staged annually in Cuernavaca, Mexico - the setting of Lowry's masterpiece, Under the Volcano. The year also saw publication of a new book, Remaking the Voyage: New Essays on Malcolm Lowry and In Ballast to the White Sea, edited by two people involved since the start of the Liverpool Lowry events, Helen Tookey and Bryan Biggs.

This University of Liverpool publication was edited by two people involved since the start of the Liverpool Lowry events, poet Helen Tookey and the Bluecoat’s Artistic Director Bryan Biggs. They had previously coedited Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the World for the Bluecoat's 2009 Lowry centenary programme. The new collection, Remaking the Voyage: New Essays on Malcolm Lowry and In Ballast to the White Sea, had its origins in ‘Under the Volcano', 70 Years On: An International Malcolm Lowry Conference held at Liverpool John Moores University and the Bluecoat in 2017. Several of the papers delivered then were edited for the new volume which was the first critical collection to focus on Lowry's 'lost' novel In Ballast to the White Sea. Contributors to the book: Chris Ackerley, Ben Clarke, Mark Crawford, Catherine Delesalle-Nancey, Annick Drösdal-Levillain, Nigel H. Foxcroft, Alberto Lena, Christopher Madden, Patrick A. McCarthy, Cian Quayle, Pierre Schaeffer, Paul Tiessen.
While the Lowry Lounge was not held in 2020 because of Covid lockdown restrictions, there was a Liverpool involvement in the online Malcolm Lowry Colloquium, 31 October - 2 November. Staged annually in Cuernavaca, Mexico - the setting of Lowry's masterpiece, Under the Volcano this was its fifteenth edition and featured an international line up of Lowry scholars and enthusiasts. The Colloquium, which normally takes place in person, has similar aims to the Lowry Lounge, exploring Lowry's work and legacy and 're-placing' him in the Mexican landscape. Alberto Rebollo, one of the Colloquium organisers, invited the Bluecoat to talk about the Lounge. Three Firminists - the group that organises the Lounge with the Bluecoat, named after Geoffrey Firmin, the main protagonist in Under the Volcano - participated: Bryan Biggs, Ailsa Cox and John Hyatt, who were each awarded a certificate.
PDF Artefact

Lowry Colloquium Diploma, 2020

2020