New Writing

UEA writer Sam Riviere has been announced as the winner of this year’s £5,000 Felix Dennis Prize for his debut collection of poetry, ’81 Austerities’, which was published earlier this year by Faber and Faber. Sam (pictured) was born in 1981 and began writing poetry during his BA in Creative and Cultural Studies at the Norwich School of Art and Design. Subsequently he graduated with Distinction from the MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, before joining UEA in 2008 to undertake a PhD in Creative & Critical Writing under the supervision of George Szirtes and Jeremy Noel-Tod. In 2005 he co-founded the anthology series ‘Stop Sharpening Your Knives’ and in 2009 he was awarded an Eric Gregory Award. In 2010 he was selected for the Faber New Poets scheme, and in 2011 he was commended for the Times Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation. In addition to Sam’s success, the former convenor of the UEA Creative Writing (Poetry) MA, Denise Riley, has been announced as the winner of the £1,000
Forward Prize for the best single poem for ‘A Part Song’, which commemorates her lost son.