Welcome to Oxford University’s MSt in Creative Writing blog, a resource for Oxford events, calls for submission, competitions, news, interviews and more.
MSt tutor Ella Hickson has been announced as the Old Vic Theatre’s new Associate Artist, hosting Creatives’ Corner instagram live chat, Wednesdays at 3pm.
From the Old Vic’s website:
“We are delighted to announce award-winning playwright Ella Hickson as our new Old Vic Associate Artist. Every Wednesday at 3pm, Ella will be leading conversations on Instagram Live with emerging talent from across different creative disciplines as we gain an insight into what it means to be working in theatre today.”
MSt alumna Maya Popa’s reading of Lisel Mueller is now available online. The announcement from The Paris Review:
In our new series of videograms, poets read and discuss the poems
getting them through these strange times—broadcasting straight from
their couches to yours. These readings bring intimacy into our spaces of
isolation, both through the affinity of poetry and through the warmth
of being able to speak to each other across the distances.
MSt alumna Susie Campbell’s poetry pamphlet Tenter has been published by Guillemot Press.
From the announcement:
“Tenter is named after the tenter-frames on which cloth is stretched (using tenter-hooks). The poems weave around the making of the Bayeux tapestry as a way into writing about past and current wars and the role of memory and language in the way we commemorate conflict. Tenter explores what the poet sees as a crisis in our current inability to respond ethically to the consequences of wars we are still involved in, whilst engaging in public and civic acts of remembrance. “
MSt alumna Jing-Jing Lee’s novel How We Disappeared has been longlisted for the 2020 Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction. The twelve books on the longlist are:
THE NARROW LAND by Christine Dwyer Hickey (Atlantic)
THE PARISIAN by Isabella Hammad (Jonathan Cape)
HOW WE DISAPPEARED by Jing-Jing Lee (OneWorld)
TO CALAIS, IN ORDINARY TIME by James Meek (Canongate)
THE OFFING by Benjamin Myers (Bloomsbury)
THE WARLOW EXPERIMENT by Alix Nathan (Serpent’s Tail)
SHADOWPLAY by Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker)
THE REDEEMED by Tim Pears (Bloomsbury)
A SIN OF OMISSION by Marguerite Poland (Penguin South Africa)
ONCE UPON A RIVER by Diane Setterfield (Doubleday)
THIS IS HAPPINESS by Niall Williams (Bloomsbury)
THE HIDING GAME by Naomi Wood (Picador)
From the announcement:
“The judges said:
“In its eleventh year, with more submissions than ever before, the 2020 Walter Scott Prize longlist reflects the energy and dynamism of modern historical fiction, a genre presenting authors with very particular challenges and delights. As always with our longlist, readers will find themselves in all kinds of places in all kinds of centuries, both in the company of familiar authors and hearing newer voices. It’s a privilege to bring these books to wider attention through the prize. So much to savour, so much to think about and, most importantly, so much to enjoy.”
MSt alumna Jing-Jing Lee’s How We Disappeared has been longlisted for the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction. The shortlist will be announced on 22nd April and the winner on 3rd June The longlist is (links to Guardian reviews):
MSt alumna Sophy Roberts was interviewed about her book The Lost Pianos of Siberiaon Music Matters on BBC Radio Three. The Lost Pianos of Siberia is published by Doubleday in the UK (February 2020), and Grove Press in the US (June 2020).
About the BBC programme, which you can listen to here. ‘Kate also catches-up with the author Sophy Roberts to learn about her travels across Siberia in search of the backstories of keyboards scattered across an eleventh of the world’s landmass. From clavichords transported by governors on sledge, through pianos which have weathered the region’s furtive cold, to a keyboard hacked out of a Gulag bunkbed frame, Kate hears how these instruments embody the soul of Siberia.”
“Stunningly written … This is a wonderful book.” — Sunday Times
“An absorbing history illuminates a bleak landscape.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Hugely compelling … Roberts is a wonderfully lyrical writer.” — The Observer
“A quixotic quest, a picaresque travel adventure and a strange forgotten story all wrapped into this one fascinating book.” — Simon Sebag-Montefiore
“What shines through in this book is
Roberts’s genuine, humane affection for and fascination with the people
she meets in Siberia.” — Literary Review
“An exploration of tragic echoes, harmonious transience and persistent mysteries at the edges of the world.” — The Times Literary Supplement
“The book’s richness is in its tangents… [a] wonderful book.” — The Financial Times
“A masterpiece of modern travel literature with words that sing from its pages.” — Levison Wood
“An amazing tour-de-force… it touches your soul.” — Radio New Zealand
“A thrilling expedition … a richly observed cultural history.” — New Statesman
“[A] quest for the perfect instrument deftly tinkles the ivories of history… Roberts’ writing is beguiling.” — Scotland on Sunday
“A sense of the extraordinary marks every page.” — History Today
“Roberts’s mix of colorful history, rich reportage, and lyrical prose makes for a beguiling narrative.” — Publisher’s Weekly
“A wonderfully intimate journey… Sophy
Roberts writes so beautifully, even her author’s note — describing her
train journey from Moscow to the Urals — hooks you in from the start.” — The Times
“A masterful example of modern historical travel writing.” — The Independent
“Beautifully constructed, clear-eyed and generous-spirited.” — William Atkins, The Immeasurable World
“An extraordinary book which will overturn the common perception of Siberia as a place only of exile.” — The Bookseller
“Richly asborbing … The Lost Pianos of Siberia is as much elegy as detective story.” — The Guardian
“Absolutely intoxicating. Such vivid detail, rich atmosphere, heartbreak, and elegance.” — Jonathan C. Slaght, Owls of the Eastern Ice
“From Pushkin to ‘Pianopolis’, this
history hits the right notes… With a lover’s passion for a subject and
territory that she has made hers.” — The Telegraph
“Roberts’s writing is beguiling… The resulting book is as wide-ranging as Siberia is vast.” — i (newspaper)
“The poetic idea of finding exquisite old pianos in an otherwise elemental wilderness is only one of many fascinating strands.” — Sydney Morning Herald
“An adventurous, moving and revealing
exploration of landscape and often dark history — but above all, of
humanity, music and memories.” — Geographical
“This book is a triumph, every chapter an adventure and a revelation.” — The Saturday Paper (Australia)
“One of those magical books that captures
the imagination and draws you into the beauty and majesty of Siberia. A
book to savour and remember.” — Helen Rappaport, The Last Days of the Romanovs
“An excellent debut book.” — New Zealand Listener
“Courage, patience, erudition and a sympathetic imagination … A travel book of rare quality.” — Dervla Murphy, Full Tilt
“The pianos are an excuse to travel to
far-off places, indulge oneself in history, meet interesting people and
tell stories, all of which Roberts does with abandon.” — Asian Review of Books
“Utterly absorbing. Roberts displays an empathy and understanding worthy of this deeply haunted, strangely fascinating land.” — Benedict Allen
“Roberts’s research, storytelling and
descriptions of the landscape will leave you spellbound. And the quiet
but beautiful fortitude of Siberia lingers long after the final page.” — The Irish News
“A modern-day Freya Stark” — Tatler
“A thrilling adventure to the ends of the
earth … Pack your suitcase for Siberia. Sophy Roberts’ gorgeous prose
will summon you there like a spell.” — Cal Flynn, Thicker Than Water
“An original new voice in travel
writing… Her closing pages are as moving an expression of the power of
emotional absorption into Russian stories as I remember in a long
time.” — The Arts Desk
“You don’t need to love Siberia or pianos to enjoy this book. Brilliance illuminates each page.” — The Press Association
“A history of the place and its people that would otherwise be forgotten.” — Travel & Leisure, Southeast Asia
MSt alumna Stephanie Scott’s novel What’s Left Of Me Is Yours will be published on 21st April, simultaneously in the USA, Canada, UK & Commonwealth. Stephanie has also been named one of The Observer’s ‘Ten Best Debut Novelists for 2020’ .
“A gripping debut set in modern-day Tokyo and inspired by a true crime, for readers of Everything I Never Told You and The Perfect Nanny, What’s Left of Me Is Yours charts a young woman’s search for the truth about her mother’s life–and her murder.
In Japan, a covert industry has grown up around the “wakaresaseya” (literally “breaker-upper”), a person hired by one spouse to seduce the other in order to gain the advantage in divorce proceedings. When Satō hires Kaitarō, a wakaresaseya agent, to have an affair with his wife, Rina, he assumes it will be an easy case. But Satō has never truly understood Rina or her desires and Kaitarō’s job is to do exactly that–until he does it too well. While Rina remains ignorant of the circumstances that brought them together, she and Kaitarō fall in a desperate, singular love, setting in motion a series of violent acts that will forever haunt her daughter’s life.
Told from alternating points of view and across the breathtaking landscapes of Japan, Stephanie Scott exquisitely renders the affair and its intricate repercussions. As Rina’s daughter, Sumiko, fills in the gaps of her mother’s story and her own memory, Scott probes the thorny psychological and moral grounds of the actions we take in the name of love, asking where we draw the line between passion and possession.”
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