Gregory Mackie to Speak at Birthday Dinner

The Oscar Wilde Society is delighted to announce that Gregory Mackie will speak at the annual Oscar Wilde Birthday Dinner on 16 October 2026, on the topic of “Oscar Wilde and Paris: A Lifelong Romance”.

Mackie is co-editor with Colette Colligan of the 2025 book Oscar Wilde’s Paris: Legends and Legacies. He is Associate Professor of English and the Norman Colbeck Curator of Rare Books at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He is the author of Beautiful Untrue Things: Forging Oscar Wilde’s Extraordinary Afterlife (2019). He is also the author of multiple scholarly articles on various aspects of Wilde’s career and reception, and a longtime member of the Oscar Wilde Society.

Oscar Wilde’s Paris: Legends and Legacies chronicles Wilde’s lifelong relationship with the French capital, the city he called “the most wonderful city in the world,” and the site of his rise to literary fame, self-imposed exile, and eventual death.

Focused on the 1880s to the 1940s, editors Colette Colligan and Gregory Mackie shed light on this vibrant, transnational chapter of Wilde’s life and legacy. Contributors document how his relationship with the city developed in literature, journalism, and the visual arts, as well as in the city’s famous cafés, bars, restaurants, hotels, and cemeteries.

Read more about Oscar Wilde’s Paris