New Writing

Booker prizewinner Ian McEwan and Costa nominee Christie Watson were featured on this morning’s Today programme on BBC Radio 4 to discuss their experiences of being at UEA, in celebration of 40 years of Creative Writing at the University. Ian was the inaugural student on the Creative Writing MA, the first of its kind in the UK, and has since become a prizewinning novelist of international renown. Christie (pictured) gradated from the MA in 2008 and was recently shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award for her debut novel, ‘Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away’. The fortieth anniversary of UEA’s Creative Writing programme is celebrated in the publication of ‘Body of Work’, an anthology of essays, reminiscences and poetry edited by Giles Foden. This coincides with the launch of a website – www.newwriting.net – designed to showcase the work of UEA students, alumni, faculty and visiting writers, and the award of a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education, the UK’s most prestigious higher education award. The Today programme can be heard again by clicking on this link: http://bbc.in/sSK2oj