New Writing

‘My Sister’s Haircut’, a short story by current UEA student Dani Redd, has been announced as the winner of the inaugural Words and Women writing competition. Open to women writers based in the East of England, the competition offers a cash prize of £600 and publication in the Words and Women anthology to be published by Unthank Books on 8th March. ‘Words and Women Anthology One’ will also include fiction and non-fiction by the twenty other shortlisted entrants to the competition. Dani (pictured) studied English Literature at Queen Mary, London, before joining the MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) at UEA this year. She has previously been nominated for several short fiction competitions, most recently The Lightship Short Story Prize, and is currently working on her first novel, set on a fictional island in the Arctic circle. Five other UEA students and alumni were shortlisted for the Words and Women competition and will also appear in the anthology. Lily Meyer grew up in Washington, DC, and graduated from Brown University before joining the Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) MA at UEA this year. Bridget Read is a current student on the Biography and Creative Non-fiction MA. Before joining UEA she worked for ‘New York’ and ‘Guernica’ magazines and was living in Brooklyn, New York. Kim Sherwood, who tours with the literary salons Elbow Room and The Book Club Boutique, completed the English Literature with Creative Writing BA in 2011, the Prose Fiction MA in 2012, and is now completing her PhD. Bethany Settle, who works at Norwich Millennium Library, also completed the English Literature with Creative Writing BA before joining the Prose Fiction MA, from which she graduated in 2007. Rowan Whiteside was born in Durban, South Africa, and spent most of her life in Norwich, graduating from UEA in 2011 with a BA in English and American Literature. She now works for Writers’ Centre Norwich. The Words and Women website can be found here.