UEA alumna Emma Healey has won this year’s Costa First Novel Award for Elizabeth is Missing, published by Penguin last year. Emma (pictured) wrote much of the novel while studying for her MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) at UEA, from which she graduated in 2011. Last year the novel was longlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize and shortlisted for the Jarrold New Writing Award. Along with the other four category winners of the Costa Book Awards, Elizabeth is Missing will now be in contention for the overall Costa Book of the Year Award, which will be announced on 27th January. The category winners each receive £5,000, and the overall winner £30,000. The Costa First Novel Award was previously won by UEA alumna Christie Watson in 2012 for Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away. Andrew Miller, who graduated from the UEA MA in 1990, won the overall award that year for his sixth novel, Pure.
Emma Healey wins Costa First Novel Award
