Creative Writing Students' Successes

Students on both the Diploma and Master's in Creative Writing have had recent successes in both publishing and competitions.

Diploma in Creative Writing

Diploma in Creative Writing alumna Cathy Dreyer has placed third in the Wenlock poetry competition for her poem What we can see. For information, please see: www.wenlockpoetryfestival.org/competitions/adult-competitions/

Alumna Honor Somerset's poem, Exmoor, a villanelle, was published in the Lightship Anthology 3, and also won fourth prize (this time in sonnet form) in the Writer's Bureau Poetry Competition.

Alumna Megan Palmer's story Behold will appear in the July issue of literary magazine Structo. structomagazine.co.uk

Current Diploma student Emily Beecher, has won £41K for her play The Good Enough Mum's Club thekneehighproject.com/2014/03/18/team-update-good-enough-mums-club-2/

Jan Thomas, current student on the Diploma course, has been working with Chris Goode and Company for Oxford Playhouse's world premiere of STAND - real life stories of courage and conscience from Oxford residents. For more information, please see: www.oxfordplayhouse.com/theatre/3184/STAND/

Master's in Creative Writing

Mst alumnus James Benmore's second novel, Dodger of the Dials, is due out on 5 June. It's the sequel of James' first novel, Dodger, which tells the continuing story of Jack Dawkins from Oliver Twist. Dodger of the Dials is available for pre-order on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/Dodger-Dials-James-Benmore/dp/1780874685

Alumna Maya Popa's Gregory O'Donoghue Prize-winning poem, Hummingbird, is now available to read online: www.munsterlit.ie/Southword/Issues/25A/popa_mayacatherine.html

Student Kiran Millwood Hargrave's first novel The Cartographer's Daughter will be represented by Hellie Ogden (London) and Kirby Kim (New York) at Janklow and Nesbit Literary Agency.

Student Eva Hibbs' theatre company, Portmanteau, has been selected by the Pleasance Theatre to go to the Edinburgh fringe for the whole month. The piece, The Hemline Index, will be on at 12pm daily in 'The Cellar', part of the Pleasance.

Mst alumni Pat Toland and Elizabeth Thompson have both been shortlisted for the Forward Prize with their poems Drive and Four Types of Migraine. For more information about the Forward Prize, please see:www.forwardartsfoundation.org/forward-prizes-for-poetry/about/

MSt student Shahla Haque's short story, The Snake, won StorySLAM at the Royal Festival Hall She will be reading at a winners event at the end of the year: www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/storyslamlive-120314-80282

Director of the Mst programme Clare Morgan's short story Charity has been anthologized in the Library of Wales (Parthian) 2 volume anthology Story. Please see www.thelibraryofwales.com/node/151

Also (not strictly creative writing) current student Zain Verjee has written and filmed a piece about mountain gorillas in Bwindi National Park for her work with CNN: cnn.it/1msBPqC. She also interviewed Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni for CNN, on the issue of gay rights: edition.cnn.com/2014/02/24/world/africa/verjee-uganda-museveni-anti-gay/index.html

Published 13 May 2014