A festive round-up of UEA Creative Writing alumni achievements in the second half of 2022
DEBUTS
Iona May (MA 2018) published her debut collection of poetry.
Eluned Gramich (MA 2012), Colleen Hubbard (MA 2015), Bikram Sharma (MA 2015), Rashmee Roshan Lall (MA 2016: PhD 2021), Taymour Soomro (MA 2016; PhD 2021), Neon Yang (MA 2016), Karen Angelico (MA 2019), Sussie Anie (MA 2019), Emma Bamford (MA 2020) and Emma Styles (MA 2020) published their debut novels
Andrea Mason (MA 2004) published a debut pamphlet of fiction. Tatiana Strauss (MA 2015) published a debut trilogy of novellas. Troy Onyango (MA 2019) published a debut collection of short stories.
Victoria Shepherd (MA 2005), Gavin McCrea (MA 2009; PhD 2013) and Caroline Davidson (MA 2019) published debut works of non-fiction.
Louise Doughty’s (MA 1987) first original TV drama was broadcast on BBC1.
NEW WORKS
Ian McEwan (MA 1971), John Boyne (MA 1995), Larissa Lai (MA 2001), Cressida McLaughlin (BA 2003), Oliver Harris (MA 2004), Emma Hooper (MA 2010), Alex Pheby (PhD 2010), Kim Sherwood (BA 2011; MA 2012), Paul Stanbridge (PhD 2011), Judi Daykin (MA 2019) and Margie Orford (PhD 2020) published new novels. A 2012 novel by Sue Hubbard (MA 1995) was republished.
Molly Naylor (MA 2008) performed Stop Trying to be Fantastic at the Edinburgh Festival and venues around the country. A play by Magdalene Bird (MA 2019) was performed at Theatre 503.
Ramona Herdman (MA 2001), Kathryn Simmonds (MA 2002) and Kirsten Irving (BA 2004) published new collections of poetry.
Richard Skinner (MA 1996) and James McDermott (BA 2014; MA 2015) published new pamphlets of poetry.
Sarah Corbett (MA 1988) co-edited a collection of poems and essays celebrating the birth of Sylvia Plath. A posthumous collection of essays by Binyavanga Wainaina (MPhil 2010) was published by Hamish Hamilton. Matthew Blackman (PhD 2019; with Nick Dell), Ezra Woodger (MA 2022) and Ben Fergusson (current PhD) published new works of non-fiction.
Karitas Palsdottir (current PhD) published a new collection of flash fiction in Icelandic.
AWARD WINNERS (BOOKS, PRODUCTIONS):
John Boyne (MA 1995) won the Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year award. Natasha Soobramanien (MA 2002; PhD 2010) and Luke Williams (MA 2002) won the Goldsmiths Prize for their jointly-authored novel, Diego Garcia. Catriona Ward (MA 2011) won the August Derleth Award (Best Horror Novel) at the British Fantasy Awards. Paddy Hughes (MA 2016) won the Bruntwood North West Original New Voice Award. Ayanna Lloyd Banwo (MA 2018; current PhD) won the Eccles Centre/Hay Festival Writers’ Award. Martha Loader (current MA) won the Bruntwood Judges’ Award. Hanna Thomas Uose (current MA) won the Morley Prize for Unpublished Writers of Colour.
AWARD NOMINATIONS (BOOKS, PRODUCTIONS):
Kazuo Ishiguro (MA 1980) was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Lynne Bryan (MA 1985) was shortlisted for the East Anglian Book Awards in the Biography & Memoir category; Mitch Johnson (BA 2014) was shortlisted in the Children’s category; Phyllida Scrivens was shortlisted in the History & Tradition category; Ashley Hickson-Lovence (PhD 2022) was shortlisted in the Fiction category. Laura Fish (MA 2002; PhD 2007) was shortlisted for the SI Leeds Literary Prize; Divya Ghelani (MA 2007) was longlisted. Martha Schabas (MA 2007) was longlisted for the Toronto Book Award. Tom Benn (BA 2009; MA 2010) and Ashley Hickson-Lovence (PhD 2022) were longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize. Catriona Ward (MA 2011) was the Literature nominee for the South Bank Sky Arts Breakthrough Award and was shortlisted for the Kitschies Red Tentacle (Novel) Award. Mona Arshi (MA 2012) was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. Natasha Pulley (MA 2012) was shortlisted for the Historical Writers Association (HWA) Gold Crown. Sonal Kohli (MA 2013) was shortlisted for the Valley of Words Awards (India) and longlisted for the Tata Literature Live First Book Award. Elspeth Latimer (MA 2014; PhD 2020) was longlisted for the Bath Novel Award. Malachi McIntosh (MA 2015) was shortlisted for the Eccles Centre/Hay Festival Writers’ Award. Paddy Hughes (MA 2016) and Martha Loader (current MA) were shortlisted for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting. Mark Wightman (MA 2018) was shortlisted for the 2022 Ngaio Marsh Best Novel Award. Katherine Black (MA 2021) was shortlisted in the Writing Mentorship category of the PageTurner Awards. Perla Kantarjian (MA 2022) was shortlisted for the Magma Poetry Pamphlet Competition. Ned Carter Miles (MA 2022) was shortlisted for the First Pages Prize. Louise Tucker (MA 2022) was shortlisted for the Cheshire Novel Prize and the Bath Novel Award.
AWARD WINNERS (COMPETITIONS):
Prerana Kumar (MA 2021) won the Women Poets’ Prize. Dennis Mugaa (MA 2022) won the Black Warrior Review fiction competition. April Yee (MA 2022) won the Text category of the Ivan Juritz Prize.
AWARD NOMINATIONS (COMPETITIONS):
Edward Hogan (MA 2004) was Highly Commended in the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition. Anna Selby (BA 2005; MA 2006) and Helen Baczkowska (MA 2021) were longlisted for the Nature Chronicles Prize. Kiare Ladner (MA 2013), Eimear Arthur (MA 2022) and Anna Goldreich (current MA) were shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. Jyoti Patel (BA 2014; MA 2021) and Ellen Wiese (MA 2022) were shortlisted for the Bristol Short Story Prize. Tim MacGabhann (MA 2017) was longlisted for the Writing.ie An Post Irish Book Awards Short Story of the Year Award. Jekwu Anyaegbuna (MA 2019; current PhD) and Leeor Ohayon (MA 2022; current PhD) were shortlisted for the White Review Short Story Prize. Leeor was also shortlisted for the QuietManDave Prize. Louise Mangos (MA 2019) was shortlisted for the Yeovil Literary Prize and awarded third prize in the Lucent Dreaming Short Story Competition. Max Lury (MA 2021) was longlisted for the Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize. Perla Kantarjian (MA 2022) was commended in The Poetry Society Young Poets Network Protest Poetry Challenge, shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize, and longlisted for the Palette Poetry Sappho Prize for Women Poets and the Lucent Dreaming Poetry Prize; Carmen Masoliver (BA 2011) was also longlisted for the Lucent Dreaming Prize. Zui Kumar-Reddy (MA 2022) was shortlisted for the Guardian 4thWrite Prize. Ned Carter Miles (MA 2022) was an Editor’s Choice in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest. Olivia Tuck (MA 2022) was longlisted for the Women Poets’ Prize.
BOOK DEALS:
Rose Tremain (BA 1967) sold her new novel to Chatto & Windus. Susan Fletcher (MA 2002) sold her new novel to Bantam/Transworld. Megan Davis (MA 2017) sold her first novel to Bonnier Books. Alan Murrin (MA 2017) sold his first novel to Bloomsbury. Grace Curtis (BA 2019) signed a two-book deal with Hodder & Stoughton. Broken Sleep Books announced the publication next year of poetry collections by Charlie Baylis (MA 2019) and Adrija Ghosh (MA 2022). Ashley Hickson-Lovence signed a deal with Penguin for two YA books.
ALSO:
The ITV adaptation of Platform Seven by Louise Doughty (MA 1987) went into production. Katie Waldegrave (MA 2007; PhD 2012) was awarded an MBE. Judy O’Kane (MA 2012; PhD 2019) won an Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust Student Award. John Patrick McHugh (MA 2014) received an Arts Council of Ireland New Generation Award. The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal (MA 2017) is to be adapted for TV by Paramount+. Rose Keating (MA 2021) received an Arts Council Ireland ‘Agility Award’ to complete a collection of stories. Nicole Hazan (MA 2022) and Hannah Thomas Uose (current MA) were longlisted for the Space to Write Project, organised by the Arvon Foundation and David Higham Literary Agency.
MISSED LAST TIME:
Claire Anderson-Wheeler (MA 2008, writing as Claire Amarti) published a new novel. Sara Barnard (BA 2010) published a new YA novel. Rick Bland (MA 2018) was shortlisted for the Stockholm Writers Festival First Five Pages Prize
AND NOT FORGETTING:
Professor Andrew Cowan published a monograph, Against Creative Writing (yup). A documentary by Claire Hynes was broadcast on BBC World Service. A play by Professor Steve Waters was performed at Norwich Arts Centre as part of ‘Dodo, Phoenix, Butterfly: Dramatising the Climate Crisis’. Steve’s version of Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle played at the Rose Theatre in Kingston-on-Thames in October, and a revival of his climate change double-bill, The Contingency Plan, was performed at the Sheffield Crucible, also in October.
Congratulations all!