The Final Chapters: Two writers on ageing and care JT Welsch and Caleb Klaces
Event details
As our society ages, questions of how we care for our loved ones - and how we respect their autonomy - are more urgent than ever.
Join authors Caleb Klaces and JT Welsch for a vital, compassionate conversation about navigating the ‘final chapters’ and the ethics of care in later life.
In his poignant novel Mr Outside, Caleb explores the fragile line between reality and delusion as a son helps his father, a former radical priest and poet, move into a care home. It’s a tender meditation on the act of letting go, finding bewildering beauty and unexpected humour even as the fog of dementia settles in.
JT joins the discussion with his nonfiction book, The Poetry of Suicide: Lessons in Grief from the Lives and Deaths of Poets, which interweaves literary history with his own family’s experiences. It includes a chapter on voluntary death in later life, asking how we can maintain dignity and agency in end-of-life care.
Our event will include readings from both authors’ books, followed by an open discussion on the challenges of caregiving and the care required to write about these topics.
About the speakers
JT Welsch is Director of Liberal Arts and a Senior Lecturer in Literature and the Creative Industries at the University of York. He is the author of several books of and about poetry, including Orchids (Salt, 2010), Hell Creek Anthology (Sidekick, 2015), and The Selling and Self-Regulation of Contemporary Poetry (Anthem, 2020). He also co-edited the migrant poetry anthology Wretched Strangers: Borders Movement Homes (Boiler House, 2018), with Ágnes Lehóczky. His latest book is The Poetry of Suicide: Lessons in Grief from the Lives and Deaths of Poets, published by Manchester University Press in April 2026.
Caleb Klaces is a poet and novelist and a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and English Literature at York St John University. Caleb’s most recent book is the novel Mr Outside. His previous novel, Fatherhood, won a Northern Fiction Award and was longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize. His first poetry collection, Bottled Air, won the Melita Hume Prize and an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors. Caleb’s second collection is Away From Me. He writes regular reviews in publications including The Guardian, e-flux, and The Poetry Review, and runs the York Centre for Writing Poetry Series, a regular event series that hosts UK and international writers on campus.
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