Good News for the Start of the Autumn Term

Since our Summer News post in July, which you can read here, a lot has happened, so I thought I'd update you on some recent student and graduate successes. It's great to be able to usher in the new academic year with some good news!

Firstly, a remarkable double success: not just one, but two of our graduates, Figen Gungor and Hannah Stevens, were shortlisted for this W&A Working-Class Writers' Prize. Figen was subsequently named as a runner-up. Figen is a graduate of English with Creative Writing at the University of Leicester, and Hannah a PhD Creative Writing graduate. Congratulations to both of them!

Congratulations to PhD Creative Writing student Joe Bedford, who recently won the national Leicester Writes Short Story Prize 2022 with his story "On Tuesdays I Clean the House." You can see details here. Incidentally, Joe is the second PhD Creative Writing from Leicester to have won the competition in recent years. In 2020, now-PhD graduate Dan Powell won the competition - see here. 

Congratulations to Paul Taylor-McCartney, who not only recently finished his PhD in Creative Writing, but has now published his debut children's novel, Sisters of the Pentacle. You can read more about it here. 

Congratulations to PhD alumna Anita Sivakumaran whose new novel, Black Rain - set mostly in Leicester - will be published by Little Brown in November 2022. You can read about her earlier novel, Cold Sun, on Creative Writing at Leicester here. 

Congratulations to MA Creative Writing graduate Lisa Williams, who has had two 100-word short stories, "Missing Dad" and "Gambling Lives," published by Friday Flash Fiction here and here. 

Congratulations to MA Creative Writing graduate Sally Shaw, whose story "A Deckchair on Southport Beach" has been published by Ink Pantry here. 

Congratulations again to PhD Creative Writing graduate Hannah Stevens, whose story "Something You Can Feel in Your Teeth" is published by Porridge Magazine here. 

Congratulations to MA Creative Writing graduate, and soon-to-be PhD Creative Writing student Kathy Hoyle, on the publication of her short story "Shh, Bairn" in The Forge Literary Magazine here. 

Congratulations to Sara Waheed, winner of this year's John Coleman Prize, for highest mark in an undergraduate Creative Writing assignment, and Shauna Strathmann, for winning this year's G S Fraser Poetry Prize. 

Everybody's Reviewing, in conjunction with the Centre for New Writing, is currently running a series of author interviews, in which PhD Creative Writing students interview well-known authors about their research and writing process. The first three interviews in the series are now published on Everybody's Reviewing. You can read PhD Creative Writing student Joe Bedford's interview with Melissa Harrison here, Mathew Lopez-Bland's interview with Susan Napier here, and Rob Reeves's interview with Kevin Fegan here. Congratulations and thanks to everyone involved! It's shaping up to be a really great series. 

And finally congratulations to Alex Lee, Danny Stringer and Miriam Waters, who wrote the the winning, runner-up and highly commended "Mrs. Edna Welthorpe" letters for this year's Joe Orton Creative Writing Competition, run by the University of Leicester. You can see details here. 

Best wishes to everyone for the new academic year!