MSt alumna Blanka Čechová’s novel “Total Balkans” best rated Czech book on GoodReads  

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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

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MSt aluman Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s “The Deathless Girls”, a reinterpreting of Dracula, to be published by Orion Children’s Books’ Bellatrix

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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.”

Read more about it on The Bookseller.

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MSt tutor Alice Jolly’s “Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile” on the Walter Scott Prize Academy Recommends list

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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.

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MSt alumna Hazel Barkworth’s novel “Heatstroke” to be published by Headline Review in 2020

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MSt alumna Hazel Barkworth’s debut novel Heatstroke is to be published by Headline Review in 2020. From the Bookseller:

“Headline’s sister imprint Headline Review has snapped up the “heady and compulsive” debut novel from Hazel Barkworth in a pre-empt deal.

Commissioning editor Frankie Edwards acquired world rights from Lucy Morris at Curtis Brown. Heatstroke will be published as a lead hardback in early summer 2020.

The novel is about the impact on three women of a teacher-pupil relationship. The synopsis says:  “It would be fair to assume this book is about 15-year-old Lily, who disappears at the beginning of a long, hot summer. But this isn’t the story you think you’re reading…”

Read more about it on The Bookseller

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MSt tutor Jenny Lewis and Michael Schmidt: events in Oxford, 27 Feb 2019

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MSt tutor Jenny Lewis and poet Michael Schmidt at two events in Oxford on 27 Feb 2019
2.00-3.00pm Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Gilgamesh the Escapologist – on the instability of texts and translations – https://www.ashmolean.org/event/gilgamesh-the-escapologist


5.30-6.30pm Kellogg College, Banbury Road, Oxford
Recalibrating the Epic of Gilgamesh for the 21st Century – How can one poem speak in such different voices and authorise such different responses?http://www.kellogg.ox.ac.uk/events/creative-writing-feb19/

Both events are free and there will be refreshments served at Kellogg from 5.00pm onwards.

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MSt tutor Jane Draycott’s poem “India” on London Underground

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MSt tutor Jane Draycott’s poem “India” is a Poem on the Underground, in London.

From the Poetry Society’s announcement:
Poems on the Underground
The Poetry Society and Poems on the Underground join forces to promote one of Britain’s most successful public art projects. As well as being displayed on underground trains throughout the capital, school members of The Poetry Society receive a set of Poems on the Underground posters each time they are released. Poems are selected by Judith Chernaik, Imtiaz Dharker, and George Szirtes.

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MSt alumna Rose Edwards at the NYALitFest, Feminism & Fantasy Panel, 16 March 2019 in Preston

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MSt alumna Rose Edwards will be on the Feminism & Fantasy Panel at the NYALitFest, 16 March 2019. The panel, chaired by Melinda Salisbury, also includes Samantha Shannon and Laure Eve.

Sat, 16 March 2019

11:00 – 11:45 GMT

UCLan Greenbank Building Victoria Street, Preston PR1 2HE

More information and tickets here.

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MSt alumna Rose Edward’s novel “The Harm Tree” to be published by UCLan, July 2019

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MSt alumna Rose Edward’s novel “The Harm Tree” will be published by UCLan in July 2019.

From the announcement:

“You’re too young to remember why we needed heroes. You should be glad…

Nine years ago, two princes waged a bloody civil war for the right to rule Arngard. The younger prince took the throne and outlawed the ancient beliefs, but some wounds don’t heal. New religion replaced the barbaric traditions and finally, there’s peace.

Torny and Ebba are friends. Sent away by their families, they work together and watch out for each other. Too young to remember the war that tore apart the kingdom, Torny dreams of the glorious warriors of old, while Ebba misses her family, despite the darkness she left behind.

But when a man is murdered on the street and Torny finds herself in possession of a dangerous message, the two friends must tread separate paths. These will lead them through fear, through grief, to the source of their own power and to the gates of death itself.

As Torny and Ebba are used as tools for the opposing factions of the war, a deep power is ignited in them both. Can they uncover their own strength to finally heal the wounds of a nation?”

Read more about the book on the UCLan website
Read a Q&A with Rose, and about the cover

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MSt tutor Jenny Lewis reads at Pembroke College, Oxford, 21st Jan 2019

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MSt tutor Jenny Lewis will be reading at Pembroke College, Oxford on 21st January 2019 at 6 pm.

From the announcement:

“Jenny Lewis is an Arts Council-funded poet, playwright, children’s author, translator and songwriter who teaches poetry at Oxford University. Her first poetry sequence, When I Became an Amazon (Iron Press, 1996), was dramatized, widely toured and broadcast on BBC Woman’s Hour. It was translated into Russian by Natalya Dubrovina and published by Bilingua, Russia in 2002. It was made into an opera with music by Gennadyi Shiroglazov, performed by the Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Company in November 2017 and won the 2018 Russian Laureate Prize . Jenny has published four collections of poetry and had seven plays and poetry cycles performed at major UK theatres including the Polka Theatre (for children), the Leicester Haymarket and the Royal Festival Hall. Her recent work includes After Gilgamesh (Pegasus Theatre, 2011; Mulfran Press, 2012), Stories for Survival, a Retelling of the 1001 Arabian Nights (Pegasus Theatre, 2015), Singing for Inanna, a chapbook of poems in English and Arabic with the Iraqi poet, Adnan al-Sayegh (Mulfran Press 2014) and Taking Mesopotamia (Oxford Poets/ Carcanet 2014). Her latest work, Gilgamesh Retold (Carcanet Press 2018), was a New Statesman Book of the Year, a Carcanet Book of the Year and a London Review of Books Book of the Week. Her work has been translated into several languages including Russian, Farsi and Arabic. She is currently completing a Ph.D. on Gilgamesh at Goldsmiths, London University.”

More details are available here

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