New Writing

Two graduates of the 2010-11 Creative Writing (Poetry) MA at UEA have been shortlisted for this year’s Poetry School Pighog Poetry Pamphlet Competition. Julia Webb is nominated for ‘Bird Sisters’, and Mona Arshi for ‘Small Hands’. They have been selected from over 600 entrants. The winning pamphlet will be announced on 26th June and will go on to be published by Pighog, an independent publisher based in Brighton. The competition is supported by the national arts education charity, The Poetry School. Julia (pictured) gained a BA in Creative Writing from Norwich University of the Arts before joining the Poetry MA at UEA, for which she was awarded the Malcolm Bradbury Continuation Grant for best student. Her work has appeared in a range of journals and anthologies and was shortlisted for The Bridport Prize in 2008 and 2009. In 2011 she won The National Poetry Society Stanza Competition for her prose poem ‘Lent’. She performs her poetry widely, and is an editor for the literary journal Lighthouse. Mona trained as a lawyer and worked for the human rights organization Liberty for several years before joining UEA. She was the winner of the Magma Poetry Competition in 2012 for her poem ‘Hummingbird’ and was one of ten poets selected for ‘The Complete Works’, an Arts Council development programme. Earlier this year her poem ‘Bad Day In The Office’ was placed second in the Troubadour International Poetry Prize. Also on the shortlist for the Poetry School Pighog Poetry Pamphlet Competition are Hannah Jane Walker, who gained a BA in English Literature at UEA before joining the Poetry MA at Newcastle University, and Sarah Barnsley, who gained a BA in English and American Studies at UEA before taking an MA and PhD at the University of London,