27-9-16
Two alumnae of the MA in Biography and Creative Non-Fiction at UEA have been shortlisted for this year’s Tony Lothian Prize (formerly known as the Biographers’ Club Prize), which is awarded for the best proposal by an uncommissioned, first-time biographer. Judy O’Kane has been nominated for ‘Thirst’, a project exploring wine, terroir and identity, while Deborah Spring has been nominated for ‘A Woman of Ideas – Lady Anne Bacon 1528–1610’. Judy (pictured) graduated from the MA in 2012 and is currently completing a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at UEA with Vesna Goldsworthy and Clare Connors. She was the winner of the Listowel Writers’ Week Original Poem prize in 2015 and has published her work in Landfall (New Zealand), The World of Fine Wine (UK) and Alquimie (Australia). Deborah gained a BA in Archaeology and Anthropology from Cambridge before completing an MA in Garden History at Birkbeck in 2007. She is the editor of Hertfordshire Garden History, vol 2, and graduated from the MA in Biography and Creative Non-Fiction last year. The Tony Lothian Prize is worth £2,000 and was previously won by UEA alumnae Jane Willis (MA 2001) in 2012 and Ann Kennedy Smith (MA 2015) in 2015. Linda Randall (MA 2006) was shortlisted in 2009, and Carrie Chandler (MA 2010) in 2012. The winner of this year’s prize will be announced on 15th November.