Spring News 2026

Our last News post was back in December. You can read it here. Lots has been happening since then in the Centre for New Writing at the University of Leicester, so here is an update on student and staff news. Thank you so much to everyone who helps make this such a vibrant community of writers. It really is a very special thing to be part of.

Firstly, congratulations to all of the MA and PhD Creative Writing students who graduated in January 2026! PhD graduate Joe Bedford was invited to speak at the ceremony. You can see his speech here. If you are interested in the MA in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester, you can read more about it here. Applications are open for Autumn entry 2026. 

From the 18th to 21st March, the University of Leicester held the 2026 Literary Leicester Festival, which, as usual, included lots of wonderful speakers, panels and events. As part of the festival, we hosted our annual Creative Writing Student Showcase. Undergraduate, postgraduate and graduate creative writers who performed at the event included Laura Besley, Nina Walker, Anupriya Sisodia, Lisa Williams, Olivia Peachey, Brandon Clune, Sophie Stockdale, Beth Gaylard, Mithila Dutta Roy, Mellissa Flowerdew-Clarke and Laurie Cusack. Thanks to everyone who made it such a lovely occasion - a brilliant celebration of everything students do. 

Our blog Everybody's Reviewing has now had over one a half million readers, and Creative Writing at Leicester has had over 800,000 readers. Thanks to everyone - our students, authors, reviewers, editors, interviewers and readers - involved. Back in January, lots of our students, graduates and staff contributed to our annual Favourite Reads of the Year article on Everybody's Reviewing. You can read it here. 

Congratulations to MA Creative Writing graduate Jess Bacon, whose book I'm Just a Girl will be published by Piatkus in June. Read more here.

In March, PhD Creative Writing graduate Joe Bedford hosted a panel for the European Network for Short Fiction Research, which also included Jonathan Taylor as one of the invited speakers. 

Congratulations to Laura Besley, PhD Creative Writing student, whose story "The Only Shade of Time is Gray" won third prize in the Henshaw Press Short Story Prize. Her story "These Days You're Kinda Okay" has been nominated for Best Small Fictions 2025 by Literary Namjooning Magazine. You can read it here. Her story "Seventeen Years from Now" has been published in Gooseberry Pie Lit Magazine here. She has written a review for Everybody's Reviewing here. 

Tracey Foster, MA Creative Writing graduate, has written a review of Muse by Ruth Millington for Everybody's Reviewing here. 

Congratulations to Cathy Galvin, PhD Creative Writing student, whose debut poetry collection, Ethnology: A Love Song for Connemara, has been published by Bloodaxe. She has been giving readings across the UK and Ireland, including at the Emerald Centre in Leicester. You can read more about Ethnology here. 

Congratulations to Beth Gaylard, who has now completed her PhD in Creative Writing in March.

Congratulations to PhD graduate Tim Hannigan, whose new book The Pathless Land: Finding a Way Across Ireland will be published by Apollo in August this year. Read more here. 

Congratulations to PhD Creative Writing student Kathy Hoyle who won second prize in the Hammond House Literary Awards Short Story category for her story, "Leporidae." Her story "Humbug Shark" has been nominated for Best Short Fictions 2025 by Does It Have Pockets?. You can read it here. Her story "Auld Gallowa" has been longlisted for the Bedford Short Story Competition.  

Congratulations to Mathew Lopez-Bland, who completed his PhD in Creative Writing in March. 

Iain Minney, MA Creative Writing student, has written a review for Everybody's Reviewing of The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn. You can read it here. 

Kimaya Tushar Patil, MA Creative Writing graduate, has written a review of The Cruel Prince by Holly Black for Everybody's Reviewing here. 

Karen Powell-Curtis, PhD Creative Writing graduate, has written a review of Have they marked you with arrows? by Jayne Stanton for Everybody's Reviewing here. 

Congratulations to Cathi Rae, PhD Creative Writing graduate, whose new poetry collection, Writing Elegies for Dead Men I Didn't Meet, has recently been published by Coalville CAN Publishing. You can read more about the collection here. You can read a review of the book on Everybody's Reviewing here. She has also written three articles on "Poetry for Everyone" for Writing Magazine. You can see more details here. 

Mithila Dutta Roy has reviewed Kit de Waal's Supporting Cast for Everybody's Reviewing here. 

Anupriya Sisodia, MA Creative Writing student, has been undertaking work experience as editor for Everybody's Reviewing. She has written a review for the site here. 

Jonathan Taylor's second novel Melissa, published in 2015, has been named as one of Stoke-on-Trent's "100 Books," a list of one hundred books from the Potteries to celebrate a hundred years of the city. He has written reviews for The Morning Star, which you can read here, here and here. His story "Cassie and the Green Knight," commissioned by the West Midlands Readers' Network, is in the anthology 5 Stories. With Karen Stevens, he has also been co-editing a book of essays, Creative Writing and the Critical Commentary, which will be published by Bloomsbury in June 2026. 

Congratulations to PhD Creative Writing graduate Paul Taylor-McCartney whose historical fantasy epic, the 5-book Broken Pentacle series, is going to be published by Blue Poppy Publishing. The second of the series, Guardians of the Pentacle, will be published in November this year. You can read about the first book here. His book, Cornwall Uncharted: Mapping Cornwall's Queer History of Concealment, Culture and Creativity, will be published by the History Press in June this year. Paul has also written reviews of The Language of Now by Anne Caldwell and The Subtle Art of Short Fiction, ed. Isabelle Kenyon, both for Everybody's Reviewing here and here. 

Harry Whitehead will be reading and speaking at Oundle Lit Fest on the evening of Friday 17th April, and Wirksworth Book Festival on the afternoon of Saturday 25th April. He'll be talking about his novel White Road, which you can read more about here. 

Congratulations to Lisa Williams, MA Creative Writing graduate, whose novella provisionally entitled The Longest Day will be published by Road Song Books later this year. Lisa has also written a review for Everybody's Reviewing which you can read here. 

Books by Students on Creative Writing at Leicester

Over the last few years, BA, MA and PhD students and graduates in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester have had amazing success publishing their books and chapbooks - including novels, short story collections, flash collections, novellas-in-flash, poetry collections, memoirs and works of creative non-fiction. We've featured lots of these on this blog, so we thought it might be a good time to collect some of them together, as a way of celebrating these authors' successes - congratulations to all once again!

You can find out more about our BA in English with Creative Writing here, our BA in Journalism with Creative Writing here, our acclaimed MA in Creative Writing here, and our PhD in Creative Writing here. 

Here (below) you can find links to just some of the books we've featured on this blog by Leicester University BA, MA and PhD students and graduates in Creative Writing over the last few years.

Joe Bedford, A Bad Decade for Good People (novel)

Laura Besley, The Almost Mothers (flash fiction collection)

Laura Besley, Un(Natural) Elements (micro-fiction collection)

Constantine, Alien Boy (children's novel for reluctant readers)

Constantine, And things begin to change ... and other stories (short story collection)

Constantine, Jötunheim (children's novel)

Constantine, Tales of the Charnwood (short story collection)

Constantine, Tiya and the Minotaur (children's novel)

Constantine, The Cats of Charnwood Forest (children's novel)

Laurie Cusack, The Mad Road (short story collection)

Kassie Duke, Word Bath (poetry collection)

Cathy Galvin, Ethnology: A Love Song for Connemara (poetry collection)

Cathy Galvin, Walking the Coventry Ring Road with Lady Godiva (poetry collection)

Tim Hannigan, The Granite Kingdom: A Cornish Journey (travel writing)

Talia Hibbert, Get a Life, Chloe Brown (novel)

Kathy Hoyle, Chasing the Dragon (novella-in-flash)

Sabyn Javeri (ed.), Ways of Being: Creative Non-Fiction by Pakistani Women (edited anthology)

Kevan Manwaring, Writing Ecofiction (textbook)

Cathi Rae, Just This Side of Seaworthy and Other Poems and Rock, Paper, Scissors and Other Poems (poetry collections)

Cathi Rae, Your Cleaner Hates You and Other Poems (poetry collection)

Cathi Rae, Writing Elegies for Dead Men I Didn't Meet (poetry collection)

Anita Sivakumaran, Cold Sun (novel)

Hannah Stevens, In Their Absence (short story collection) 

Paul Taylor-McCartney, Sisters of the Pentacle (YA novel)

Rory Waterman, Come Here to this Gate (poetry collection)

Rory Waterman, Sweet Nothings (poetry collection)

David Wharton, Finer Things (novel)

Spring News from Creative Writing at Leicester

It's been a few months since our last news post (which you can read here), so we thought it was time for an update, now we're at the end of the Spring term. There are some great news stories to share from Creative Writing and the Centre for New Writing. Wishing everyone a great Easter break!

General News from Creative Writing at Leicester

There have been some great events, guest talks and masterclasses at the University over the last few months. You can read about some of them here - and there are still more to come next term. Do take a look.

As part of this year's amazing Literary Leicester Festival, we ran our third annual Creative Writing Student Showcase. It was a lovely event, featuring brilliant readings from BA, MA, PhD Creative Writing students and graduates, including Beth Gaylard, Grace Klemperer, Hannah Mitchell, Lisa Williams, Kathy Hoyle, Jack Peachey, Laurie Cusack, Daneil Hibberd, Tracey Foster, Rob Reeves, Isobel Copley, Alexander Osani, Oleksandra Korshunova and Laura Besley. 

The final results of the "Nature, the Environment & Sustainability" Short Story Competition were also announced at Literary Leicester Festival. Congratulations to joint winners Lee Wright and Sophie Sparham, as well as Alice Newitt who was specially commended, and runners-up Sam Dawson and Carol Rowntree Jones. Joint winner Lee Wright is a current PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester, and Sam Dawson is one of our MA Creative Writing graduates. You can read about the final results on Creative Writing at Leicester here.  

Congratulations to Creative Writing graduates Sam Bouch, Matt Walton, Nina Walker and all those involved in the writing and publication of the inaugural issue of Amateur Hour, a zine of poetry and prose by members of the eponymous writing group in Leicester. You can read more details about the zine on Creative Writing at Leicester here. 

Thank you to all the Creative Writing students and graduates, Kristy Diaz, Georgia Sanderson, Kathy Hoyle, Laura Besley, Hannah Mitchell and Grace Klemperer, all of whom came to talk to our External Examiners, Chris Jones and Karen Stevens, on Monday 18 March. It was a really insightful and fascinating discussion. 

Recently, our review website Everybody's Reviewing passed 375,000 readers and Creative Writing at Leicester is about to hit 250,000 readers. Our Facebook group has over 1,600 members. Thanks to all our contributors, authors, reviewers, editors, members, designers and readers! 

Student News from Creative Writing at Leicester

On Tuesday 23 April, PhD Creative Writing student Joe Bedford will be appearing at Waterstones Cardiff, and again on Wednesday 24 April at The Tabernacle, Mumbles (Swansea), promoting his novel A Bad Decade for Good People (Parthian Books, 2023).

MA Creative Writing graduate Laura Besley's story, "Conditions for Living," has recently been published by Gone Lawn here. 

MA Creative Writing graduate Constantine is continuing his work as editor and co-founder of Coalville C.A.N. Community Publishing. The organisation is a resource for local writers, with special consideration given to neurodiverse and disabled writers and those from under-represented backgrounds. You can read a blog by Constantine here and can view Coalville C.A.N. Community Publishing's website here.  

PhD Creative Writing graduate Laurie Cusack has had a beer (6.5%) named after his book, The Mad Road. The beer was sold at the Ale Stone Pub on Aylestone Road, Leicester, over Christmas. Proceeds went to the Emerald Centre in Leicester. Cheers, Laurie!

MA Creative Writing student Kristy Diaz will be co-authoring An Untold History of UK Emo (working title), to be published through independent record label Big Scary Monsters, anticipated release in 2025.

Congratulations to PhD Creative Writing graduate Tim Hannigan, whose book The Granite Kingdom was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year 2024.

Congratulations to PhD Creative Writing student Kathy Hoyle whose story "Cockleshell Girl" is published in South Florida Poetry Journal here. 

Congratulations to MA Creative Writing graduate Tionee Joseph whose work was featured at the International Working Class Story Festival at Upstairs at the Western and online on March 23rd-24th. The festival was a showcase of talent from working-class artists and academics in the UK, USA and Australia.

Congratulations to Grace Klemperer, BA English with Creative Writing student, who performed her poetry at the "Run Your Tongue" open-mic poetry evening in Leicester. This regular open-mic poetry evening is run and compered by PhD Creative Writing student Rob Reeves. 

Congratulations to Creative Writing graduate Amrita Manku, whose play The Incident was performed at the Discovery Showcase Event at The Curve Theatre in Leicester on Friday 1 March. You can see more details here.

Amirah Mohiddin, PhD Creative Writing student, recently presented a conference paper at the Historical Fictions Research Annual Conference (2024), in Malmo, Sweden. Her paper was entitled "A Thousand and One Nights Meets Morocco’s Fight for Independence in a Historical Fantasy," and explored how Young Adult fantasy can be a powerful mode to decolonise history. The paper is linked with her practice-based research, where she is writing a YA fantasy novel interrogating storytelling as a mode of heroism and salvation. You can read more about Amirah's PhD here. 

Congratulations to PhD Creative Writing graduate Karen Powell-Curtis, whose poem "Mary Wilson" has been published in the new issue of Allegro Poetry Magazine. You can read the poem here.  

Congratulations to PhD Creative Writing student Jane Simmons whose poem "The Poet Writes an Abecedarian for her Maiden Aunt" won third prize in the Mslexia Poetry Competition. 

Congratulations to Charlie Wilkins, MA Creative Writing student, whose latest novel, History Is a Haunted House, was recently published. You can read more about it here. 

"Sprawl" by Emma Leach

Emma Leach is a second year student studying Creative Writing at Leicester. She really enjoys travelling and this has influenced her writing throughout the course. 

Sprawl 

Caged by grey.
A ribbon of smog
Overhangs the sprawl.
Clusters of skyscrapers
Absorb the day’s heat
That is unable to escape the
Dome of pollution.

Amid the bustle
The streets are swarmed,
People catching a glimpse of the city.
Lines of cars, like ants
On the roads,
Crawl on lacing freeways as
Red break lights illuminate every interstate.

Paranoia.
A distressed voice in the toilet cubicle
Calls out on Venice Beach,
Masked out by sounds of bike bells.
Graffiti climbs the neighbouring walls.
Brash colours
Of urban minds.

From where I stand
There is silence.
Golden interweaving paths
Separate concrete.
The Observatory gazes over the city,
Observing the sprawl.
Abhorring chaos, it slumbers in its own oasis.

Saffron Lane

(Saffron Lane estate, 1927)

Congratulations to third-year English with Creative Writing student, Yasmin Musse, whose poem, "Saffron Lane," has just been published in the online magazine I Am Not A Silent Poet. You can read it here.