Monday 4th November 2024
UBC discuss Begin the World Over
Book group discussion on Begin the World Over by Kung Li Sun, open to all. Come along on the night, no need to book.
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar
Monday 21st October 2024
UBC watch The Giver
Social film night to watch The Giver (2014).
Apologies but this event is only open to existing Utopian Book Collective members, plus Spike Island studio holders and associates. Please contact Sheryl to book.
7pm, Spike Island Associate Space
Monday 7th October 2024
UBC discuss Cloud Cuckoo Land
Book group discussion on Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Dooer, open to all. Come along on the night, no need to book.
7pm, Hort’s Townhouse
Monday 16th September 2024
UBC film night – Strange World (Disney, 2022)
7pm, Spike Island Associate Space
Tuesday 10th September 2024
UBC social – Lifehouse book launch
A group outing to the launch of Adam Greenfield’s new book Lifehouse: Taking Care of Ourselves in a World on Fire at Bookhaus, Wapping Wharf.
More info and tickets here: https://www.bookhausbristol.com/events/#e111178
Monday 2nd September 2024
UBC discuss The Birds
Book group discussion on The Birds by Aristophanes, open to all. Come along on the night, no need to book.
Free translations are available online, or Bex, our resident classics expert, suggests the translation by Stephen Halliwell, published by Oxford World Classics.
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar
Monday 5th August 2024
UBC discuss The Female Man
Book group discussion on The Female Man by Joanna Russ, open to all. Come along on the night, no need to book.
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar
Monday 22nd July 2024
UBC watch Tomorrowland
This month’s film choice is Disney’s Tomorrowland. It was a complete flop on release but some people think it’s just underappreciated.
Apologies but this event is only open to existing Utopian Book Collective members, plus Spike Island studio holders and associates. Please contact Sheryl to book.
7pm, Spike Island Associate Space
Monday 1st July 2024
UBC discuss The Terraformers
Book group discussion on The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz, open to all. Come along on the night, no need to book.
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar
Monday 17th June 2024
UBC watch Her
Spike Jonze’s 2013 film about a man (Joaquin Phoenix) falling in love with an AI (Scarlett Johansson) has been back in the news of late, after ChatGPT had to remove a voice option that sounded suspiciously like Johansson. Time to rewatch and check whether we’re living in the future of the film.
Please contact Sheryl to book and for details of the venue.
7pm, secret cinema in central Bristol
Monday 3rd June 2024
UBC discuss Emergent Strategy
Book group discussion on Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown, open to all. Feel free to read the whole book but we will concentrate on the introduction for this discussion.
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar
Monday 20th May 2024
UBC watch La Belle Verte
1996 French film about the utopian planet ‘Beautiful Green’, from whence a volunteer decides to visit Earth to check out how we’re getting on, and whether we still have such primitive things as “cars” and “money”. And so she arrives in Paris…
Please contact Sheryl to book and for details of the venue.
7pm, secret cinema in central Bristol
Monday 6th May 2024
UBC discuss The Dispossessed
Book group discussion on The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, open to all. Time to read, or re-read, an absolute classic!
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar
Monday 22nd April 2024
UBC watch The Bothersome Man
Dark comedy about a man who finds himself in a cool Scandi ideal world, except no-one seems to have any real emotions. As he starts to question the world around him he draws the attention of the “Caretakers” and decides he needs to escape.
Apologies but this event is only open to existing Utopian Book Collective members. Please contact Sheryl to book and for details of the venue.
7pm, secret cinema in central Bristol
Monday 1st April 2024
UBC discuss January Fifteenth
Book group discussion on January Fifteenth by Rachel Swirsky, open to all.
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar
Monday 18th March 2024
UBC watch The Village
This month’s film choice is The Village (2004). Spooky horror/thriller from M. Night Shyamalan about a rural community living a seemingly idyllic life, apart from the ghouls in the surrounding woods.
Apologies but this event is only open to existing Utopian Book Collective members, plus Spike Island studio holders and associates. Please contact Sheryl to book.
7pm, Spike Island Associate Space
Monday 4th March 2024
Book group discussion on Communitas: Means of Livelihood and Ways of Life by Percival & Paul Goodman, open to all.
This book is available for free online.
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar
Monday 19th February 2024
Film night watching The Kitchen. Apologies but this event is only open to existing Utopian Book Collective members, plus Spike Island studio holders and associates. Please contact Sheryl to book.
7pm, Spike Island Associate Space
Saturday 17th February 2024 – UBC recommended event
Improvised Climate Futures
A workshop exploring imagined climate futures through discussion, improv and exercises, inspired by a talk from a climate scientist.
This event is not being run by UBC but by sci-fi writer and climate activist Emma Geen, along with Dr Joanna House of the IPCC and Dr Kierann Shah, Artistic Director of the Bristol Improv Theatre and science communicator. It’s being held at Sparks Bristol (the artist takeover of the old Marks & Spencer’s shop) in Broadmead, Bristol from 1-3.20pm.
Highly recommended event and it’s free to attend. Sign up and find more info at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/improvised-climate-futures-tickets-785139402087?aff=oddtdtcreator
Monday 5th February 2024
Book group discussion on Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon, open to all.
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar
Monday 22nd January 2024
Film night watching Woman in Motion. Apologies but this event is only open to existing Utopian Book Collective members, plus Spike Island studio holders and associates. Please contact Sheryl to book.
7pm, Spike Island Asso
Monday 8th January 2024
Book group discussion on A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, open to all.
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar
Monday 4th December 2023
Book group discussion on Everyday Utopia by Kristen Ghodsee, open to all.
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar
Saturday 25th November 2023
Family-friendly group visit to the Utopian Chemistry art installation in The Galleries, Bristol, followed by lunch in the food court. Meet there at 11am. See the Bristol Post for more information about the installation. All welcome.
Monday 20th November 2023
Film night watching Aniara. Apologies but this event is only open to existing members. Please contact Sheryl to book.
7pm, Spike Island Associate Space
Monday 6th November 2023
Book group discussion on The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein, open to all.
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar
Monday 16th October 2023
Film night watching Logan’s Run. Apologies but this event is only open to existing members. Please contact Sheryl to book.
7pm, Spike Island Associate Space
Monday 2nd October 2023
Book group discussion on Triton by Samuel R. Delany, open to all.
Monday 18th September 2023
Film night watching Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Apologies but this event is only open to existing members. Please contact Sheryl to book.
7pm, Spike Island Associate Space
Monday 4th September 2023
Book group discussion on The Seep by Chana Porter, open to all.
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar
Monday 7th August 2023
Book group discussion on Thoreau’s Walden.
Monday 17th July 2023
Film night. Apologies but this event is only open to existing members. Please contact Sheryl to book.
Monday 3rd July 2023
Book group discussion, open to all
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar
Monday 19th June 2023
Monday 5th June 2023
Book group discussion on Walkaway by Cory Doctorow
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar
Monday 1 May 2023
Book group discussion on The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk.
7pm, Watershed Cafe Bar, Bristol
Wednesday 3 May 2023
UBC night out – Space Crone book talk
6pm, Bookhaus, Bristol
Ursula Le Guin is a favourite author of UBC. We will be attending this book talk at Bookhaus, join us there. From the Bookhaus event listing:
Space Crone brings together Le Guin’s writings on feminism and gender for the first time, offering new insights into her imaginative, multispecies feminist consciousness: from its roots in deep ecology and philosophies of non-violence to her self-education about racism and her writing on motherhood and ageing.
Sarah Shin, co-founder of Silver Press and editor of this book will be in conversation with Samantha Walton, author of Everybody Needs Beauty.
Monday 3 April 2023
Book group discussion – Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut
7pm
Watershed Cafe Bar, Bristol
Thursday 9 March 2023
UBC night out!
A social outing to an event of interest happening in Bristol.
7pm
Strange Brew, Bristol
Monday 6 March 2023
Book group discussion – Walden Two by B. F. Skinner
7pm
Watershed Cafe Bar, Bristol
Monday 6th February 2023
7pm
Book group discussion
Watershed Cafe Bar, Bristol, UK
How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
Monday 9th January
7pm. Watershed Cafe Bar, Bristol.
Book group discussion
The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin
Novella by Ursula K. Le Guin, written during the Vietnam War. A group of Terran colonisers have arrived on the forest planet Athshe, where the native Athsheans live peacefully and sustainably amongst the trees. All is disrupted by the Terrans, who are enslaving the natives and plan to clear cut the planet for timber.
For further information on the book, check out friend of UBC Kate Stable’s appearances on Radio 4 discussing The Word for World is Forest on A Good Read and Ursula Le Guin on Great Lives.
For even more background, there is also a presentation on the book by UBC convener Sheryl (me, writing this post) available to view online.
Infinite Detail by Tim Maughan
Book group discussion
Monday 5 December, 7pm
Watershed Cafe Bar, Bristol
Monday 7 November, 7pm
Watershed Cafe Bar, Bristol
Monday 3 October, 7pm
Watershed Cafe Bar, Bristol
Monday 5 September, 7pm
Watershed Cafe Bar, Bristol
7pm Monday 4th July 2022
Watershed Cafe Bar, Bristol
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
7pm Monday 6 June 2022
Watershed, Bristol
They by Kay Dick
Historic special events
Ursula K. Le Guin Appreciation Day
Back in 2016 the Bristol Utopian Book Collective collaborated with Kate Stables (of This Is The Kit), Jesse D. Vernon (of Fantasy Orchestra) and others on an Ursula K. Le Guin Appreciation Day. Le Guin is our most read author in the group and we had a great time. The event is documented in this report by Jesse, including recordings of our Kesh singing. Talk continues of doing another one some day…
Unputdownable (Bristol Festival of Literature) event
Waay back in 2011 we hosted an event as part of Unputdownable, now generally known as Bristol Festival of Literature. It was an informal affair where we chatted to people about the group and the books we had read so far. Looking at the table I can see More’s Utopia, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Fatherland by Robert Harris, and Aldous Huxley’s Island amongst others. Apols for the quality of the photos, cameraphones were sh*t in those days (and probably still called cameraphones, not smartphones, back then).
