Funding London

This summer has been slipping away from me quickly and I'm grateful for that in some ways. However, I'm working a lot now and have little time to write and work on finding scholarships. There's not much out there and now it's crunch time.

Unfortunately, so many of the grants out there are for graduate students going abroad, not undergrads. So I'm getting creative. I'm writing an essay on Lincoln for a contest and submitting a few short stories to contests for various publications. I'm hesitant to get too set on winning anything for my work - especially my creative work. I'm not impressed by anything I've written yet and it's getting discouraging.

But I am comforted that God has a plan and it's a good one. I know that this year abroad is right - the hard road to get there is merely the hard prep work and will make me ever so grateful when I actually get there.

On a brighter note, I've acquired the Oxford Guide to Literary Britain and Ireland. It's probably the best purchase I've ever made.

Lawrence of Arabia

I read an article today about T.E. Lawrence (http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/73171) that I found very interesting and sparked my curiousity. I've seen the film "Lawrence of Arabia" a number of times and find it breathtaking. This article, which reviews a new biography of Lawrence, attempts to give a glimpse of the man as he really was.

I plan on adding one of Lawrence's books to my ever-growing summer reading list. He is such a legendary figure and has such an interesting life story. I'm also intrigued by a phrase from the article above: the "brutality of dreamers" - the military careers of men such as Lawrence and Byron. This idea of the armed poet, the sensitive warrior is something that seems worthy of investigation... maybe a thesis... Hmmm....

New thesis idea -  "Brutal Dreamers: The English Warrior Poet"

Note: Add Lawrence's home is Dorset (2 hours from London) to literary tour!

Literary London Part 1

During my stay in England, I hope to travel to the various homes of famous English writers and other literary sites that are open to the public. Here is a list of ones I've found so far:

Charing Cross Road (84 Charing Cross Road, to be precise)
Fleet Street (Sweeney Todd!)
Poets' Corner (Westminster Abbey)
The Sherlock Holmes Museum (221B Baker Street)
The Charles Dickens Museum (48 Doughty St.)
John Keat's House in Hampstead
Samuel Johnson's House
Effigy of John Donne at Old St. Paul's Cathedral
Shakespeare's Theatres (the Globe and the Rose) and Stratford-upon-Avon
The British Library (96 Euston Rd)
Bronte Parsonage/Haworth Museum (northern England)
Wordsworth Houses (Cockermouth and Dove Cottage in Grasmere)
Beatrix Potter's Hill Top Farm (Lake District)
Home of D.H. Lawrence (Eastwood)
Byron's Home (Newstead Abbey)
Thomas Hardy's Cottage (Dorset) and Grave (Stinsford church)
Jane Austen's Home at Chawton (Hampshire)


I've also stumbled upon a listing of literary festivals in the UK: http://www.thewordtravels.com/literary-festivals.html  Hopefully I can find an updated listing with 2011-2012 dates.