FollowColin Grant, Kellogg College Creative Writing Seminar, May 15, 2019
MSt tutor James Womack shortlisted for Ledbury Forte Poetry Prize 2019
MSt tutor James Womack has been shortlisted for Ledbury Forte Poetry Prize for his collection On Trust: A Book of Lies . From the announcement:
“Judged this year by Lachlan Mackinnon and Linda Gregerson, the biannual prize is the first of its kind and aims to support and encourage ‘mid-career’ poets, with a £5,000 prize for the winner. The vibrant, diverse collections offer a reminder that in turbulent political times poetry – particularly those published by independent and small presses – continues to thrive and flourish.
The prize recognises that a poet’s second collection can be “dangerous, risk-taking liberating and wildly ambitious” according to Tom Chivers, Editor at Penned in the Margins, who says “I welcome a new prize for second collections, to shine a spotlight on work that might otherwise fall down the gap between the excitement of the new and the confidence of the established.”The shortlisted poets will be invited to read at a Prize Giving event on Friday 5 July 2019 at Ledbury Poetry Festival when the judges will announce the winner. “
More information on the prize, the shortlist and the books
MSt tutor Alice Jolly’s “Mary Sate, Imbecile” shortlisted for the 2019 Rathbone Folio Prize
MSt tutor Jenny Lewis with Jem Poster and Sue Leigh at the Oxford Literary Festival, Sun 7 April 2019
MSt tutor Jenny Lewis will be discussing her poetry with Professor Jem Poster and Oxford poet Sue Leigh at the Oxford Literary Festival on Sunday 7 April, 12.00-1.00pm, St Cross College.
From the announcement:
“Oxfordshire poets Jenny Lewis and Sue Leigh discuss their writing and its sources.
Lewis and Leigh have been working recently at opposite ends of the scale – Lewis on a vigorous version of the epic of Gilgamesh and Leigh on a collection of finely worked lyric poems – but they share a vision of the poet’s art as vocation and of the cultural importance of poetry itself.
Lewis is an Anglo-Welsh poet and playwright who teaches poetry at the University of Oxford. Her recent publications are Gilgamesh Retold, Fathom and Taking Mesopotamia. Leigh is a poet and writer based in Oxfordshire’s Windrush Valley. She teaches creative writing at the University of Oxford’s Department of Continuing Education. Her latest work is Chosen Hill.
Here they talk to poet, novelist and festival director of academic programmes Professor Jem Poster.”
More details below
https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2019/april-7/epic-and-miniature
MSt tutor Roopa Farooki’s interview with St George’s, University of London, online
MSt tutor Roopa Farooki’s interview with St Georges’ for World Book Day and International Women’s Day about her new book series is available online.
From the interview:
“International Women’s Day is an annual event which falls on 8 March each year. It has celebrated the achievements of women around the world since 1911. The theme for International Women’s Day 2019 is ‘Balance for Better’ to help forge a more gender-balanced world.
Roopa Farooki is a fourth-year graduate entry medic and published author. She is about to launch a series of children books about black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) women in science.
What inspired the books? And what are they about?
When I started medical school, I’d already written six literary novels, so I didn’t have any great ambition to write another. But I thought it would be amazing to write something that my four young children could read. It turns out that writing for children is really hard, and I’m no Roald Dahl, so I wrote something like a thousand pages of fiction before I found the right story.“
You can read the full interview here.
MSt tutor Harry Man’s “Greatist Hits II” (with SJ Fowler) to be published by Kingston University Press
MSt alumna Blanka Čechová’s novel “Total Balkans” best rated Czech book on GoodReads
MSt alumna Blanka Čechová’s novel Total Balkans is the best rated Czech book on GoodReads .
From the cover: “Can billions be embezzled hundred by hundred? Does democratization make sense? And does an individual have any chance to make a difference inside a huge organization? A young lawyer sets out for a breathtaking mission in Kosovo to find the answers. She witnesses crushing injustice, survives a line of incredible adventures, disillusions and doubts, and finally, she becomes the black sheep inside the respected organization and the hero of local people, who realize that somebody finally cares.”
The English version of the book is available on Amazon
MSt aluman Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s “The Deathless Girls”, a reinterpreting of Dracula, to be published by Orion Children’s Books’ Bellatrix
MSt alumna Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s reinterpretation of Dracula is to be published by Orion Children’s Books’ new YA feminist series, Bellatrix.
From The Bookseller
“Millwood Hargrave has written The Deathless Girls – the untold story of the brides of Dracula. 17-year-old Lil and her twin sister Kizzy are captured and enslaved by the Boyar Valcar, taken far away from their traveller community. Forced to work in the castle kitchens, Lil meets Mira, a fellow slave girl she feels inexplicably drawn to. But she also learns about the Dragon – a mysterious figure of myth who takes young girls as gifts.”
MSt tutor Alice Jolly’s “Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile” on the Walter Scott Prize Academy Recommends list
MSt tutor Alice Jolly’s novel Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile (published by Unbound) is one of the Walter Scott Prize Academy’s Recommends for 2019.
From the announcement: “Announcing the Academy list, chair of Judges Alistair Moffatt said:
“We are delighted to unveil our Academy’s ‘recommended’ list, offering readers a further selection of twenty superb novels from the UK, Africa, Australia and beyond. The Walter Scott Prize Academy, expanded this year to include book bloggers and international book festival directors, is playing an important role in bringing superlative historical fiction from further afield to public attention, as well as recognizing home grown talent.” “
Read more about the list here.