New Writing

Two UEA alumni have been longlisted for this year’s £10,000 Desmond Elliott Prize for the best debut novel of the year. ‘Randall’ by Jonathan Gibbs was published by Galley Beggar Press last year and is included on the longlist of ten with ‘Elizabeth is Missing’ by Emma Healey, which was published by Viking. Jonathan (pictured) was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad in 1972, grew up in Essex and now lives in London. He graduated from the UEA MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) in 2009, when he was the recipient of the Malcolm Bradbury Bursary, and completed his PhD in Creative and Critical Writing in 2014, also at UEA. His story ‘The Story I’m Thinking of’ was shortlisted for the inaugural White Review Short Story Prize, while ‘The Faber Book of Adultery’, first published in Lighthouse, was anthologised in Salt’s ‘Best British Short Stories 2014’. He reviews regularly for The Independent and the TLS and teaches on the UEA undergraduate programme. Emma graduated from the MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) in 2011, and subsequently worked for the UEA IT department while completing her novel. ‘Elizabeth is Missing’ is now an international bestseller and was also recently longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Independent Booksellers Week Awards. It was previously longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, shortlisted for the Jarrold New Writing Award, and was the winner of the 2014 Costa First Novel Award. The shortlist for the Desmond Elliott Prize will be announced on 15th May, and the winner on 1st July.