Radioactive Fossils

A special event tapping into the latent, disruptive energy of unfinished creative works.

After a million-year sleep at the base of a volcano or a sedimentary basin, a fossil can take on the properties of its environment. A piece of petrified wood, a megalodon’s tooth, or a dinosaur bone is suffused with uranium, with thorium: the elemental traces of a past that isn’t past.

Still emitting energy, an unfinished creative work is also a kind of radioactive fossil. What happens when we dig up these charged objects? What is alive in them, capable of affecting us or the world? And if we hold them in our hands, will their touch energise us? Or will they only singe our fingers?

Join us for a special evening excavating the radioactive fossils of some of South Wales’ most exciting creative writers. Writers working across genres will share from works-in-progress and dormant texts: works that were paused, buried, or set aside, but that still exert pressure on the present.

Together, we’ll explore what it takes, personally and creatively, to return to unfinished works—and what new forms become possible when such works are opened to others. Audience members will be invited to take part in playful acts of co-creation, helping to reimagine the latent possibilities of the unfinished.

Radioactive Fossils is a chance to encounter the strange afterlives of creative work in Wales today: the unexplored ruins, wild experiments, and abandoned worlds that may not be quite finished with us yet.

Tickets are free and include complimentary dessert and hot drinks. All are welcome but spaces are strictly limited.

Featuring: David Bolitho, Nia Davies, Tracy Harris, Sian Hughes, Catherine Jenkins, Joshua Jones, Radha Patel, Emma Smith-Barton, and Clare Sturges.

This event is presented by Dr Alix Beeston, Dr Ailbhe Darcy, and Dr Christina Thatcher with funding from Cardiff University’s Future Generations Engagement Fund.