An extract from Margaret Meyer’s debut novel, The Witching Tide, published by Phoenix in July 2023 Early September, 1645 Wednesday She was in the garden at first light. There were herbs to cut: rosemary for the roast meat, mint and mallow for her cough. The house and the street and the hill beyond it […]
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SPEAK TO ME
An extract from Paula Cocozza’s new novel, SPEAK TO ME, published by Tinder Press on 6 July 2023. It has become clear to me that I will have to take serious action in regard to Wendy. Ten minutes ago, when Kurt’s telephone vibrated with a wooden judder on the bedside table, his penis – […]
UEA Creative Writing alumni achievements January-June 2023
A sunny summer round-up of UEA Creative Writing alumni achievements in the first half of 2023 DEBUTS Yan Ge (MFA 2020) published her debut collection of short stories in English. Jo Leevers (BA 1985), Jack Byrne (BA 2003), Buku Sarkar (MA 2011), Alice Slater (MA 2011), Anna Metcalfe (MA 2012; PhD 2016), Jyoti Patel […]
Two Poems
Two poems from a fondness for the colour green, published by Broken Sleep Books in June 2023 autumn in kyoto green fruit pastilles & houellebecq huge acacias powdering out the sunset rejection all the sad girls in kasumi pearls singer-sargent & submarines gashed lungs south-rushing waterfalls opium clouds rashed by lantern light ophelia […]
Small By Small: Becoming A Doctor in 1990s Nigeria
An extract from Ike Anya’s new book, Small By Small: Becoming A Doctor in 1990s Nigeria, published by Sandstone Press on 18 May 2023 Poison, general science, making choices She strides into the wooden-floored classroom, sure-footed and statuesque, taking her place at the front, in the gap between the rows of desks occupied by our class of eleven-year-olds, and the blackboard. We hear her heels […]
Three Poems
Three poems from Wild Life by James McDermott, published by Nine Arches Press in June 2023 Roadkill cruising Cromer back lanes at dusk I come across squashed deer oily blood a mirror guts mixed with sticks and stones wearing its heart fluid body couldn’t run free from man Recentre I Google Maps […]
Before the Storm
An extract from Before the Storm by Jack Byrne, published by Northodox Press in May 2023. “That’s amazing.” Vinny meant it. He had never seen or touched anything gold, not real gold like this. The whole thing was glistening. He could run his hands over it, feel the weight of it all day long. He […]
I Got A Name
An excerpt from I Got A Name, the debut work of narrative non-fiction by Eliza Robertson, published by Hamish Hamilton in May 2023. 1. A Linkage of Lives The pages had been folded inside a No. 10 envelope and left on the porch of my childhood home. There was no return address or sender: […]
The Tumbling Girl
An extract from Bridget Walsh’s debut novel, The Tumbling Girl, published by Gallic in May 2023. Charlie Moore wasn’t looking for any particular girl – he wasn’t that fussy, truth be told – just someone halfway pretty and willing to take his mind off his troubles for a short while. Here on the Strand […]
Two poems
Two poems from Love and Stones by Josephine Corcoran, published by Live Canon in May 2023 In Lockdown, Solitude Becomes a Flying Lover (after a postcard of ‘Over the Town’ by Marc Chagall) Children leave for their student lives, husband catches an early train. In bed, I hear the front door snap, steam rising […]