Summer News 2026

Our last News post was back at the end of March. You can read it here. Since then, lots has been happening, so here's an update from Creative Writing students and staff in the Centre for New Writing at the University of Leicester.

To start with, this blog, Creative Writing at Leicester, has now had well over 1 million readers. At the same time, our sister site, Everybody's Reviewing, has now passed the 2 million mark. Thank you to all our readers, contributors, editors, reviewers, authors. We never guessed these two blogs would be read so widely when we first set them up!  

In Spring, the Centre for New Writing, in conjunction with Everybody's Reviewing, ran a Book Review Competition for current undergraduate and postgraduate students. You can see the results of the competition, including links to the winning reviews, here. 

Congratulations to Jess Bacon, MA Creative Writing graduate, whose book I'm Just a Girl has been published by Piatkus. You can read more about it on the publisher's website here. 

Congratulations to Joe Bedford, PhD Creative Writing graduate, whose short story collection Mating Habits will be published by Parthian Books in 2027.

Aamani Bommareddy, BA Journalism with Creative Writing student, has written a review for Everybody's Reviewing here. The review was awarded an Honorable Mention in our 2026 Book Review Competition.

Charlie Black, BA English with Creative Writing student, has written a review for Everybody's Reviewing here. The review won Second Prize in our 2026 Book Review Competition.

Congratulations to Constantine, MA Creative Writing graduate, who has published his new children's novel, The Lady of Atlantis. You can read more about it here. He has also edited and published a new anthology of writing by students at Ellistown Primary School, The Sum of Our Parts. You can read more about the book here.  

Congratulations to MA Creative Writing graduate Kristy Diaz who has contributed an interview to the new book Rebel Grrrls: The Real Story of Women and Punk by Molly Tie. Read more here.  

Mellissa Flowerdew-Clarke, PhD Creative Writing student, has written a review for Everybody's Reviewing here. The review won First Prize in our 2026 Book Review Competition. 

Congratulations to Cathy Galvin, PhD Creative Writing student, whose debut poetry collection Ethnology has been shortlisted for the Laurel Prize 2026. Ethnology has also been longlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. You can read more on the publisher's website here. The book has been featured on this blog here, and reviewed on Everybody's Reviewing here. Over the last few months, Cathy has been giving readings across the UK and Ireland.

Congratulations to Beth Gaylard, who recently completed her PhD in Creative Writing. 

Congratulations to Tim Hannigan, PhD graduate, whose book The Pathless Land: Finding a Way Across Ireland, will be published by Bloomsbury this September. Read more here. 

Congratulations to Katherine Howey, who has a Certificate in Higher Education in Creative Writing, on the publication of her historical novel In Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. You can read more about it here. 

"Dead Man's Hollow," a short story by PhD Creative Writing student Kathy Hoyle, has just been published in a new anthology called Perfect Circle from Uncertain Stories. You can read more about it here. 

Felicity James, Associate Professor at Leicester, along with her colleague Dr Rachel Winter have started their AHRC project Empathy, Difficulty, Difference: Creative Curiosity in Practice. Run jointly between English and the Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare, the project explores the role of creativity in fostering empathy. So far, this has included a workshop about ways of developing creative engagement with healthcare professionals, held at Glenfield in July. You can read the first responses here. Felicity's new essay "The Wild Essay, Or, the Essayist responds to the University Policy on Generative Artificial Intelligence in Learning, Teaching and Assessment"  has been published by the journal New Writing.

Congratulations to Sabyn Javeri, PhD Creative Writing graduate, whose story "Priority" has been longlisted for the 4th Write Short Story Prize, run by 4th Estate publishers and The Guardian. Read more here.  

Rim Asma Khalifa, BA English with Creative Writing student, has written a review for Everybody's Reviewing here. The review was awarded an Honorable Mention in our 2026 Book Review Competition. 

Congratulations to Mathew Lopez-Bland, PhD Creative Writing graduate, whose story "Purple and Green" is winner of the 2026 Honeyfeed Story Contest. You can read it here. Mathew recently completed his PhD in Creative Writing.

In May 2026, Anna O'Sullivan, BA English and MA Modern and Contemporary Literature with Creative Writing graduate, worked as guest editor of Everybody's Reviewing. She has written reviews here and here. 

Olivia Peachey, BA English with Creative Writing student, has written a review for Everybody's Reviewing here. The review was awarded an Honorable Mention in our 2026 Book Review Competition.

Dan Powell, PhD Creative Writing graduate, has an essay, "The End Is Never Where You Think," in the new book, Creative Writing and the Critical Commentary, ed. Karen Stevens and Jonathan Taylor, published by Bloomsbury. 

Writing Elegies for Dead Men I Didn't Meet, poetry collection by MA and PhD Creative Writing graduate Cathi Rae, has been reviewed on Everybody's Reviewing here. 

Sally Shaw, MA Creative Writing graduate, has written reviews for Everybody's Reviewing here, here, and here. 

Anupriya Sisodia, MA Creative Writing student, undertook work experience as guest editor of Everybody's Reviewing in June 2026. She interviewed author Annabelle Slator for the blog here. She has written reviews for the site here, here, here and here. 

Congratulations to Hannah Stevens, PhD Creative Writing graduate, whose new collection of short stories, On the Bodies of Strangers, has just been published by Wind & Bones. You can read more about it here. 

Laura Sygrove, MA Creative Writing graduate, worked as guest editor of Everybody's Reviewing in July 2026. She interviewed author Suyin Du Bois for the blog here. She has written a review for the site here. 

Jonathan Taylor, Associate Professor, has co-edited with Karen Stevens Creative Writing and the Critical Commentary: Reflection, Influence Process. The book has now been published by Bloomsbury Academic, and features an anthology of sample reflective commentaries, alongside guidance about writing reflectively. You can read more about the book here. Jonathan's memoir, A Physical Education: On Bullying, Discipline & Other Lessons was shortlisted for the Non-Fiction Book of the Year in the International Rubery Book Awards. You can read more here. His story "He never writes to me no more" was published in The Morning Star here. He has written reviews for The Morning Star here and Everybody's Reviewing here.

Congratulations to Paul Taylor-McCartney, PhD Creative Writing graduate, whose debut non-fiction title Cornwall Uncharted: Mapping Cornwall's Queer History of Concealment, Culture and Creativity has been published by The History Press. You can read more about it here. His story "Of What Remained" is featured in the anthology Salt & Stone, published by Hermitage Press. You can read more here. He has written reviews for Everybody's Reviewing here, here and here. Paul's novel Sisters of the Pentacle was recently reviewed on Everybody's Reviewing here. 

Aidan Trulove, MA Creative Writing graduate, has written an article on her MA Dissertation, "How to End Your Story," for Creative Writing at Leicester here. 

Congratulations to Anna Walsh, MA Creative Writing graduate and soon-to-be PhD student, who successfully pitched her short film Bike Park to The Slate, a filmmaking and talent development programme based at Leicester’s Phoenix Cinema. Bike Park, a workplace comedy, is currently in development and will be shown at the Phoenix in March 2027. She has also written an article about her MA, "Internal Windows," here. 

Associate Professor Harry Whitehead's novel White Road has been shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize 2026. The winner will be announced on 17th September. You can find out more, along with a variety of related podcasts, interviews and so on, on the prize website here. Harry's paper on the history of Soviet Russian Creative Writing programmes was published in the journal New Writing. You can read it here.

Congratulations to Lisa Williams, MA Creative Writing graduate, on the publication of her debut novella, The Longest Day, by Road Song Books. Lisa first drafted some of the book as part of her MA Dissertation. You can read more about it here.

Congratulations to Lee Wright who has recently completed his PhD in Creative Writing. He has also written a review for Everybody's Reviewing here.