New Writing

UEA alumnus Joe Dunthorne is the winner of this year’s Encore Award for his novel, ‘Wild Abandon’. The Encore Award, which is for the year’s best second novel, is worth £10,000 and was judged by Alex Clark, Peter Parker and Kate Summerscale. Joe was born and brought up in Swansea and graduated from the UEA English Literature with Creative Writing BA in 2004. He graduated from the MA in Creative Writing in 2005, when he was the inaugural recipient of the Curtis Brown Award. His debut novel, ‘Submarine’, was published in 2008 and was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize, the Wodehouse Bolinger Prize, and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best First Book Award. It was translated into ten languages and adapted for cinema. His debut poetry pamphlet was published by Faber and Faber in 2010. ‘Wild Abandon’ has also been shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year Award.