New Writing

Novels by two UEA alumni have been longlisted for this year’s Gordon Burn Prize, which is worth £5,000 to the winner. Tom Benn is nominated for Oxblood, which was published this year by Bloomsbury, while Ashley Hickson-Lovence is nominated for Your Show, which has recently been published by Faber. Tom (pictured) graduated from the UEA BA in English Literature with Creative Writing in 2009 and from the MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) in 2010. His first novel The Doll Princess (Cape 2012) was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Portico Prize and was longlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association’s John Creasey Dagger Award. His other novels are Chamber Music (Cape 2013) and Trouble Man (Cape 2014). In 2016 Tom was a winner of Creative England’s iWrite scheme for emerging screenwriters and his first film Real Gods Require Blood was selected to premiere in competition at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Short Film Award at the BFI London Film Festival. Tom is a Lecturer on the MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at UEA. Ashley grew up in Hackney, London, and completed an MA in Creative Writing and Publishing at City, University of London, while working as a secondary school English teacher. He is currently completing his PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at UEA, where he teaches on the MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction). Ashley also teaches for First Story, Haringey Learning Partnership, and the University of Bournemouth. His debut novel The 392 was published by OWN IT! in 2019. The winner of the Gordon Burn Prize, which will be announced in 13 October, will receive £5,000 and a three-month retreat at Gordon Burn’s cottage in the Scottish Borders.