Daisy Johnson
Student spotlight details
While studying the MSt in Creative Writing Daisy worked on a collection of short stories which would later become her debut book. Her novel 'Everything Under' was nominated for the Man Booker Prize in 2018.
'Before enrolling on the MSt I was working on my degree in English Literature and Creative Writing at Lancaster University and trying to decide what to do next. I enjoyed the discipline of academia and decided to try and study Creative Writing more intensely. I wanted to work at the same time, and later got a job at Blackwells Bookshop, so the part time, residency like structure of the course was ideal for me.
'I came to the course as a fiction writer who dabbled, quite badly, in poetry. I found it very challenging to have to work on different forms of writing some of which, such as radio plays, I had never explored before. Doing this, I think, really expanded my writing and enabled me to come at fiction from different angles and with the knowledge of other writers I hadn’t previously known about. The thing I really found most rewarding from the course were the other writers who I met while studying, many of whom I am still in contact and sharing my work with. Writing can be lonely and having a writing community is important. I met people on the course who I trust with my early, very messy drafts.
'While studying on the course I started work on the collection of short stories which would later become by debut book. After that I worked on a novel which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2018. This enabled me to write full time and I am currently working on my third novel.
'The long weekends spent studying the course were invigorating, exhausting, inspiring and all consuming. I think that the people who got the most out of the time were those who gave their all, worked hard, fully committed to studying and spending other time with people who loved the same things they did.'
