New Writing

Two UEA alumnae have been shortlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association (HWA) Crown Awards. The Hiding Game by Naomi Wood is shortlisted for the Gold Crown Award for the best historical novel of the year, while The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal is shortlisted for the HWA Debut Crown. Naomi graduated from the MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) in 2008 and completed her PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at UEA in 2013. Her first novel The Godless Boys was published in 2011 and she became the inaugural British Library Eccles Centre Writer-in-Residence in 2012. Her second novel Mrs Hemingway won the 2014 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize and was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. She is now a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at UEA. Elizabeth graduated from the MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) in 2017 as that year’s holder of the Malcolm Bradbury Memorial Scholarship. The Doll Factory, which she began at UEA, was the winner of the 2018 Caledonia Novel Award, and was published by Picador last year. Elizabeth is also a potter and runs Limehouse Ceramics in London. She is the sponsor of the Bourne Scholarship for a student to study on the UEA MA.