Tag: Novel Studio (page 1 of 6)

Announcing 2024’s Novel Studio Literary Agent Competition Winners!

We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2024/2025 Novel Studio Literary Agent Competition: Merveille Ondekane, Connor Maxwell, and Madison Silverman.

The Novel Studio is City St George’s flagship short course for aspiring novelists, offering 15 writers dedicated time and support to hone their craft. The competition is a rare opportunity for students to bypass the typical manuscript submission process and connect directly with literary agent Lucy Luck, agent at C&W Agency.

Merveille Ondekane, Connor Maxwell, and Maddie Silvs were chosen from a pool of exceptionally strong entries. Course Director Emily Pedder noted, “We’re very excited by these three writers and can’t wait to see their novels progress this coming year.”

 

Winner Merveille Ondekane

Merveille Ondekane’s journey as an aspiring novelist began with City University’s An Approach to Creative Writing course, where she discovered her passion for bringing the worlds and characters in her imagination to life. In her own words:  “As a newcomer to the literary world, I wanted to deepen my understanding of novel crafting, which led me to the intensive Novel Studio course—a year-long experience I was fortunate to join after being awarded a scholarship. Winning the Novel Studio Literary Agent competition, especially among such a talented group of writers, is an incredible honour, and I’m looking forward to connecting with Lucy Luck at C&W Agency as I continue to develop my novel.”

Winner Connor Maxwell

Connor Maxwell is a Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he is working to advance a $460 million initiative to increase upward economic mobility and opportunity in the United States. He has served as a Senior Policy Advisor at the White House, an Economic Policy Advisor on the Biden-Harris Transition Team, a Policy Analyst on the Biden-Harris Presidential Campaign, and as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for American Progress. Born and raised in the District of Columbia, he received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Public Policy from the University of Virginia. Currently living and working in London, he enjoys reading and writing fiction that sheds light on lesser-known historical events and perspectives. He completed the City, University of London Novel Writing and Longer Works short course before joining the Novel Studio.

Maddie Silvs is a debut novelist with her coming-of-age novel, Stardust. She is a Penn State graduate with a bachelor’s degree in public relations. A Philly girl at heart, she currently resides in the sunshine state in Delray Beach, Florida. Working as an Events Manager for Cambridge University Press, the written word has always been her safe space. She googled funny author bios, but really couldn’t come up with much to say about herself other than, “go birdz baby.”

Winner Maddie SIlvs

The Novel Studio has a strong track record of published alumni, including recent bestsellers and award winners such as Deepa Anappara’s Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, Anna Mazzola’s  The Unseeing, The Story Keeper, The Clockwork Girl,  and The House of Whispers, and Harriet Tyce’s Blood Orange, The Lies You Told, It Ends At Midnight and A Lesson in Cruelty.

Congratulations to Merveille, Connor, and Madison! We look forward to supporting them and their fellow students as they develop their novels over the next year.

Celebrating Literary Dreams: The Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship Empowers Aspiring Novelist

Scholarship Winner Merveille Faila

We are thrilled to announce that Merveille Faila will be 2024’s recipient of the Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship. This generous scholarship, supported by City Alumni Ambassador George Politis, provides a fully funded place on our prestigious year-long Novel Studio programme, aiming to provide opportunities for talented, aspiring novelists from low-income households.

The Novel Studio offers a structured and supportive environment for writers to learn about the craft of novel writing and to develop their own novels over the course of a year.  The course has built a reputation for spotting and nurturing emerging novelists and has a very strong track record of published alumni. Through the Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship, we are able to open doors for talented individuals who might otherwise face financial barriers to pursuing their writing ambitions.

This year’s scholarship recipient, Merveille Faila, has said:

“It is a great honour to be the recipient of the Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship. As someone aspiring to develop my voice as an emerging writer, the scholarship provides the resources to do so in a structured and supportive environment. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to gain greater exposure to the literary world, and to learn and grow in my experience of crafting a novel.”

This sentiment embodies the very essence of what the scholarship and the Novel Studio programme aim to achieve – fostering new voices, building confidence, and providing the tools and connections necessary for success in the literary world.

George Politis has said:

“It is such a great honour to support literature and talent.  I try to follow in my dad’s footsteps, always curious.  That’s why we launched the FinTech. Lab at Bayes, all about innovations and technology.  Progress requires creativity and imagination.  The Novel Studio is all about that, training our future inspiring novelists. Congratulations to Merveille, eager to hear your voice!”

We are hugely grateful to George Politis for his visionary support. By funding this scholarship in honour of his late father, Captain Tasos Politis, George is investing in the future of literature.

The Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship also represents City’s commitment to diversity in literature and our belief in the power of storytelling to shape our understanding of the world. We look forward to being part of Merveille’s writing journey as she embarks on her Novel Studio year.

For anyone interested in City’s writing short courses, join us for our online open evening on Wednesday September 11 where you will have a chance to try one of our free taster sessions. Full details avaiable here.

Interview with Jo Cunningham, author of debut novel Death by Numbers

Next week sees the launch of debut cosy crime novel, Death By Numbers, written by City Novel Studio alumna Jo Cunningham. Jo took time out of her busy schedule to answer our questions ahead of publication day. Read on for her answers and for more details about the book.

 

  1. When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer?

Glossing over my dubious childhood poetry and notebooks full of random jottings, I didn’t start writing ‘seriously’ until my early thirties. I went on a beginners Arvon course for a week, with no expectations, and by the end of the course I was hooked. One of the tutors on the course recommended the courses at City University for novice writers and…

 

  1. Who are you currently reading?

I have just finished reading The Misadventures of Margaret Finch by Claire McGlasson which is a beautifully written novel about a young woman in 1930s Blackpool who questions how she observes others, and herself. Next up, is Kala by Colin Walsh – I’m going to hear him speak about the book soon, so that’s exciting. And after that on my TBR pile is Monumenta by Lara Haworth – after hearing Lara’s amazing talk at the recent City Writes event, I had to get her book!

 

  1. You’ve studied creative writing and also worked hard at the craft of writing on your own. What’s been the most useful thing you’ve learned about writing a novel?

Yikes – just one thing? At the moment, I’m in an editing phase, and as I re-read each scene, I ask myself ‘Does this scene earn its keep?’ – is there enough happening to keep it – does it push the story and the characters forward? If the answer is ‘No’ then I either need to rework the scene or ditch it.

 

  1. What kind of qualities does a writer need?

Persistence and resilience.  It took me many years from starting to write novels to reach the publication stage. The main thing you must do is finish the novel. I know that sounds glib, but not everyone does. The next thing is dealing with rejection. I wish had some words of wisdom on that. Rejection hurts, but you somehow have to get over it and keep going. Even now I’m at the publication stage, I know there will be more of that to face in the future but… you only need that one person to say ‘yes’!

 

  1. What made you write a cosy crime novel? What is it about the genre that appeals to you?

Back in 2017, I’d just put another novel in the ‘bottom drawer’ and wanted to start something new. I’d been reading Douglas Adam’s Dirk Gently detective novels and was inspired to start on a humorous detective book. I read and watch a lot of cosy crime – there’s something oddly comforting about knowing everything will be resolved and usually there’s a good dose of humour included.

Author Jo Cunningham

  1. Can you tell us about your path to publication?

I’d describe it more as an obstacle course where I created some of the obstacles. For my first three novels, I didn’t bother with looking for an agent or publisher – I didn’t think they were of a good enough standard and perhaps I was trying to put off being rejected… they went straight in the bottom drawer. But the fourth novel I did send round to five or six agents. I got a couple of personal replies in amongst standard rejections and tumbleweed. I think I should have been a bit more persistent at this stage – please see my own advice about writer qualities above. Anyhow… when it came to the fifth novel, Death by Numbers, I decided I would really go for it. I sent the novel out in small batches to agents. I started to get full-read requests which boosted my confidence – this is when the agent has enjoyed the excerpt that you’ve sent and now wants to read the whole manuscript. Eventually I got an offer from my amazing agent Marina de Pass at The Soho Agency – from sending in a submission to the ‘slushpile’ – so yes, it can happen.

 

  1. What advice would you have for someone starting out writing a novel?

I’ve benefitted enormously from taking courses, getting feedback at workshops, and reading books to help improve different writing skills – structure, character, productivity. But there were times when I had step back and work out what was going to work for me. I guess my advice is that you have figure it out so that you create your own advice for yourself.

 

  1. What are you working on now?

I’m currently finishing off a batch of edits on the second book in the cosy crime series featuring Una, an actuary and a detective. It’s called Pet Hates and is due to come out in August 2025. Writing the next book in series has been a learning curve, as it has to be standalone but still have some touches that make it feel there’s some continuity for anyone who’s read the first one.

Thanks so much, Jo! We can’t wait to read the novel!

Death by Numbers will be published on 1 August and you can order a copy here.

Jo will also be our guest at next term’s City Writes. Full information on how to enter the competition or how to come along and listen to Jo read from her novel will be available on the website soon.

For more information about our writing short courses, visit our website here, or come along to the virtual open evening in September. Full information on the free taster sessions available and how to register can be found here.

City Writes Summer 2024: A Monumental Event

By Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone

While half the country were on the edges of their seats watching football, us lucky few were treated to a night of storytelling, imagination and the excitement of hearing the inner world of consciousness burst out from the page.

 

City Writes is a termly event set up to showcase the best talent from City’s creative writing Short Courses. It’s a game of two halves (I couldn’t resist): readings from competition winners, students and alumni of City’s creative writing short courses who enter their best 1,000 words of fiction or creative non-fiction into the termly competition; and a visit from a published alumni or tutor and this term we managed to score the wonderful Lara Haworth, whose debut Monumenta came out with Canongate on the 4th July.

 

We began the night with the competition winners and Dee Miller, recent Novel Studio alumna, kicked things off with an extract from her Middle Grade novel, Between Wind and Water. We were enthralled as Geal, guardian of Spring, discovers all the people and animals of their local village are gone, leaving only footprints, paw marks and hoof prints behind. It was easy to imagine a young audience being gripped by this fantastical and energetic tale.

 

We heard from An Approach to Creative Writing alumna, Emily Edwards next as she read her multi-perspective story, ‘Laurie’. Who was this rather wild woman and what happened that night? A story that leaves the central character absent but all over the text, it was a thrilling and eerie listen. The audience were left wanting more in all the right ways.

 

Moving from one dark scenario to another, Flora Tonking read her story, ‘The Playing Field’ next. Another recent Novel Studio graduate, Flora’s story was inspired by events in her mystery novel, Chosen Family, and certainly proved her expert turn of phrase and her ability to leave bodies bleeding in the dark. A very haunting and moving story. Bring on the novel!

 

From fiction to creative non-fiction, we were treated to a wonderful portrait of Constance Markiewicz next as Fact-Based Storytelling alumna, Pamela Welsh, read her piece, ‘A Countess in Combat’. Constance’s life from riches to revolution was inspiring and a wonderful advertisement for Pamela’s book project on women in conflict. That’s a book I think we’ll all be eager to pick up.

 

Another Novel Studio alumna and City Writes veteran, Jill Craig read next. Her story, ‘Estrangement’, took us onto a boat ride with her main character, on her way to see her estranged mother with a new boyfriend, desperate to reach out to her sister, the one who remained her touchstone of safety. So full of emotional turmoil and laced with lyrical writing, the audience were putty in Jill’s hands.

 

Next, we heard from Margaret Rogerson, our final competition winner and another recent Novel Studio graduate. Margaret read an extract from her novel, I Was, Once. She transported us into those delicate teenage years, fourteen and eager to find excitement in life. Her character found herself on holiday in a campsite surrounded by an aunt preoccupied with ‘that stupid baby’ and a whole host of men hungry to watch her cartwheel. Let’s hope Margaret publishes soon so that we can read the rest of this story with such a compelling and funny voice at its heart.

 

After such a stellar set of competition winning readers, it was a good thing we had multi-talented artist, filmmaker and now writer, Lara Haworth as our guest speaker. A Novel Studio alumna who read an early extract from Monumenta at City Writes back in 2021, Lara is a phenomenal writer dear to our hearts. Her debut, Monumenta is a book that examines how we remember collectively and in private. The Guardian says it  ‘fizzes with ideas’ and Bookmunch say it ‘Deserves a place on awards shortlists’ and the City Writes audience couldn’t agree more. Over the next half an hour or so Lara introduced us to the book through her answers to my questions and some wonderful short readings from a small novel that really packs a punch.

Author and City alumna Lara Haworth

Set in Belgrade, the novel opens with Olga Pavić receiving a letter from the government. It tells her that her house is being requisitioned in order to turn it into a monument for a massacre. But which one? No one seems to know. It’s a novel that explores memory in all its present, personal and civic interpretations. It was such a delight to speak with Lara and you can hear her readings, our conversation and all of the competition winners by clicking on this link to the video of the night. It really was a monumental night. Buy your copy of Monumenta here.

 

Thank you, Lara, thank you competition winners, thank you audience members and Emily Pedder for supporting this event. It truly is a showcase for the talent coming from the short creative writing courses at City and what talent there is. Next term, City Writes returns with alumna Jo Cunningham as our guest. Jo’s debut, Death by Numbers comes out with Hachette this August. It’s a seaside comedy crime that will have us burning on our beach towels. Listen to the event HERE and watch this space for details of City Writes Autumn 2024.

Interview with Lara Haworth, author of debut novel Monumenta

Author and artist, Lara Haworth

Lara Haworth is a writer, visual artist and filmmaker. In 2018 she was accepted onto City’s flagship year-long novel writing programme, The Novel Studio. She was also the winner that year of our Literary Agent Competition. Always tipped for success, last year Lara sold her debut novel, Monumenta, to Canongate. The novel will be published this summer. We caught up with Lara to find out more about her writing life and her journey to publication.

 

  1. Have you always written?

Yes. As soon as I was able. I wrote my first story aged four in a small notebook on my mother’s desk. Its protagonist was a knight who comes across three forking paths, and cannot decide which one to take. Goodness gracious, I wanted to him to say, as he realises the choice lying ahead. I spelt it goodness gracars.

2. Which book was the first to have a real impact on you as a reader, and which as a writer?

The first book I read that made me realise there was something other than just a story going on was The Great Gatsby. I was eleven. Much of it went over my head, the unrequited love, the critique of wealth, the disillusion. But I remember Fitzgerald describing the ‘silver pepper of the stars’ and looking up at the sky and actually gasping. So that’s what you can do, I realised. And maybe this, too, and this…

Fast forward twenty-three years, and my life is in some disarray. (This is an understatement.) I was visiting friends in Spain and started reading Deborah Levy’s Things I Don’t Want to Know. About three chapters in I felt an overwhelming pressure, as if a dam was breaking somewhere in my heart, or my throat, or my knees. I started to pace up and down and up and down this beach, gripping the book like it was a hand, pulling me up from a deep well. It gave me a kind of ferocious, blistering instruction to write, properly, seriously, now. It said, There is nothing else for you. When I got back from Spain, I applied to the Novel Studio. I still have the book. It has these white-knuckled dents in the cover.

3. If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Don’t expect anyone to find you, and your writing, without telling them where you are or what you’re doing. Don’t imagine that this is something you can do on your own. Don’t be frightened. (You will also be frightened.)

4. Why do you write and what makes it so vital for you?

When I’m in the excavating, mining stage, it rolls on a scale between because I have to and because I want to. Sometimes, when the I want to is struggling, because I am tired, or frightened, or stuck, or distracted, the I have to engages more fiercely, as more of a grim-faced imperative, shaking its head and pulling me back to my desk, to my thoughts, my subconscious, until the I want to returns in equal measure, to provide a lift. At its best, they both work together, and that is when you’re flying.

When I’m redrafting and editing, things get bigger, wider. I picture the reader: their joy, their woe, their precious time. If I can illuminate something – a feeling, a place, the way a potato slices open in a ‘90s deli – that impresses on a reader a sense of recognition, and a slightly different way of seeing and thinking about the world, then that is also why I write. There’s politics there too. I write to smuggle in difficult histories, strange emotional realities, and I try to centre queer lives, so long obscured in the literary canon.

5. Do you think writing can be taught? And relatedly, can you tell us a bit about your experience of being on writing courses?

When I was a teenager, I was at a friend’s house, whose father worked in publishing. Over dinner, he went on an extended rant about how you couldn’t teach creative writing, how all his authors had always written, and that was the only thing that could possibly matter. Perhaps because I didn’t know anyone else that worked in publishing and I wanted to be a writer, I really took his words to heart. It was a bad decision. From that moment on I avoided creative writing classes, and chose instead to write alone, in secret, thinking: I’m writing, and this is what I’ve always done! Someone will find me and recognise my labour. They didn’t. And the longer I wrote in secret, the more my fear grew about sharing my work. Every now and then I would submit something to a ridiculously prestigious magazine or journal and then be crushed when I was (inevitably) rejected. A pretty sad cycle, that I thankfully managed, eventually, to break. I wish I had done it sooner.

While I do think that there needs to be some ineffable something to your writing to get the best out of a writing course, there are a whole host of things you simply cannot get on your own. Like, learning how to build a novel, which is architecture. Learning how to edit, how to build pace, when to cut, when to trust your reader, when to give them more. This you learn by submitting your work to be read by your peers. And you’re not ready. But then you become ready. And the readiness grows. And that expectation, that deadline, is generative. It makes you a better writer.

My time on the Novel Studio was completely transformative in this respect. Being read. It was such a relief. Even if the feedback was hard, I would still sometimes feel very emotional on the tube home, seeing all those different handwritings in the margins of my manuscripts. And it was a privilege to read my peers’ writing too – to lose myself in their worlds, and bring my sensibilities as a writer to their work. The course also taught me that books don’t live in a blank space. They’re deeply connected to the world, most pressingly, the publishing world. All of the things that I had so studiously avoided for so long: talking about my work, emailing agents, trying my luck, writing pitches – all had to be done. And it was so very helpful to be given the tools to do this, to knock on all those guarded doors.

6. Can you tell us a bit about your experience of getting a publishing deal? Has anything been surprising, in a good or bad way?!

During the Novel Studio, one of my tutors revealed that her first novel did not get picked up for publication. I remember so vividly the shock I felt, as if she’d reported her own death. I glimpsed how painful that must have been for her. Perhaps because it had been such hard work to even get to that point, it was something I hadn’t considered –– even though the evidence, should I need it, was all around me, told again and again by many of my favourite writers (Hilary Mantel!).

A year and a half later, I was telling the same story. I wasn’t so naive that I thought I would definitely get a publishing deal for my first novel, but it did seem like finishing the final draft and working through more rounds of rolling rejections to get an agent might mean I was finally there. I was, of course, wrong. My first novel was not picked up. It was an extremely painful experience. Loss. A kind of grief. By that point I had gone from extreme secrecy about my writing to extreme exposure – and, in the way of all worst nightmares, my failure was also happening on a very public scale. Everyone knew.

Full credit to my partner, who after watching me mooch around in my depression for a while, said, The only thing that’s going to help now is getting back to work. She was right. I had started writing Monumenta in the summer of 2020. I went back to it in autumn 2021, and within two months it was finished. The rejection had actually sharpened my writing, made me care less about failure. I was able to take more risks. I carved a chunk out of it and submitted it as a short story to the Bridport Prize, and actually won. Very unexpected. This was the catalyst for my agent to submit it to publishers.

I’m still surprised Monumenta got picked up. It doesn’t really conform to any of the silent rules of the industry. It’s short. It’s about monuments, and difficult European history. I couldn’t think of any other books to compare it to. In the end, we had two offers and went with Canongate, who have always been my dream publisher. Securing the deal took two extremely nerve-wracking weeks. Sometimes I still can’t believe it’s real. I think what I’m trying to say with this very long-winded answer is that risk and failure are not just part of the process, they are the process, they influence and change the work in rich and strange ways.

7. Which fiction writers inspire you currently?

Mariana Enriquez. Wendy Erskine. Olga Tokarczuk. Jenny Erpenbeck. Colson Whitehead. Deborah Levy. Kevin Barry. Christina Sharpe. Lan Samantha Chang. Anne Enright. Sebastian Barry.

8. Do you have a particular writing process? Favourite place or time of day to write? Any rituals?

I work best when I have dedicated chunks of time. I’m not, sadly, one of those writers that can write for fifteen minutes in the morning and then get on with their day. It’s a whole day / night thing. It’s all or nothing. I have chosen a more unsettling, unstable line of freelance money earning, so that I can work manically for periods and save up, and take time off to write. This functions in some senses, but during dark nights of the soul it can feel fundamentally unsensible and wrong. When I am writing, I have a target word count every day, and that can take anywhere between two hours and a whole day to achieve. I’m lucky to have my own little writing space in our house, which overlooks the street. So I still see a little bit of life, going by.

9. Are you someone who plans and plots before you write or do you write to discover the story? Or both?!

I start with at least one person (who’s already been talking to me in my head for a while), a place, a primary situation, and a sense of its undertows. But I write to discover. I feel quite strongly that that’s my job – to go to that weird place of half dream and subconscious. A dark, dark forest. It’s a constant tussle between being in control of my material and also letting my material have some control. To let it go. I think that plotting it all out at the start would essentially mean executing a plan, and that’s not really the point, for me. It’s not a report. It’s got to be deeper than that. About a third of the way through I start to see what’s happening, where the loops and patterns and connections are, what the characters are wanting to do, and not do, say, and not say.

10. And to finish, what are you working on now?

Lara’s debut novel, Monumenta

I’m halfway through my third novel, which is called Julie Needs Things. All my novels are different, but this one feels harder than the others. It takes place over a long period of time, it’s told in the first person, it’s set in the UK, it contains some autobiographical elements. Yet it is a work of fiction. I wrestle with telling stories from my own life. I feel, instinctively, that it might not be interesting.

Thank you so much, Lara! To pre-order Lara’s novel, visit HERE. And for more about Lara and her work, visit HERE.

For anyone inspired to join The Novel Studio, applications are now open with a 30 June deadline. Please email any questions to Emily.Pedder.1@city.ac.uk

For all our other short writing courses, please visit HERE.

Here’s a Novel Idea

Apply to the Novel Studio and join our growing list of published alumni.

The Novel Studio is City’s flagship novel writing programme which supports 15 selected students to work on their novels for a year.

The course has been the starting point for many successful novelists. From bestselling crime writer Harriet Tyce, whose fourth novel, A Lesson in Cruelty, was published with Wildfire earlier this month—and who generously initiated and funded our Novel Studio scholarship for four years—to debut novelist Lara Haworth, whose first novel, Monumenta, will be published with Canongate this summer, the Novel Studio has become recognised as a place to develop and grow as a writer.

From researching your ideas, plotting and planning to writing, editing and familiarising yourself with the publishing industry, the programme will guide you through the tricky terrain of novel writing.

Taught by established writers and editors, with opportunities to meet literary agents and publishing professionals, if you’re ready to take your novel writing to the next level, this course is for you.

As if that wasn’t enough, we offer a Literary Agent Competition for all successful applicants to the course, run in association with leading agent Lucy Luck at C&W Agency.

And for one talented writer from a low-income household, we have a fully-funded scholarship – The Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship.

Full details on all these opportunities and information on the course are available here.

Or you can apply directly with 2000 words of your fiction and a CV to Emily.Pedder.1@city.ac.uk

Deadline 30th June 5pm.

We look forward to reading your applications!

Summer Term 2024 at City Short Courses

 

Thank you to all who attended our Short Courses Open Evening last week. We had a great time meeting new students and introducing them to what we do here at City Short Courses. Many students took advantage of our free  taster sessions, which ranged across our six subject strands:  Business and Management; Computing; Creative Writing; Creative Industries; Languages; and Law. There were tasters in everything from Learning Python to Italian, Business Writing to Major Event Management.

If you didn’t have a chance to join us, never fear! There’s still time to browse our full range of 120 courses and book on for the summer term. Why not try Presentation Skills, or brush up on your French in time for holidays. Or you could consider applying for our year-long Novel Studio programme and finish that novel you’ve always wanted to write! Whether it’s personal development or adding a new skill to your CV, we have something for everyone here at City Short Courses.

If you’d like further information before making your decision, just email our team at shortcourses@city.ac.uk. If they can’t answer your questions, they’ll contact the relevant tutors and make sure you get the answer you need.

Your short course journey starts HERE. We can’t wait to welcome you.

 

City Writes Spring 2024 – Celebrating City’s Creative Writing Short Courses

Novel Studio alumna Katharine Light shortlisted for 2024 Selfies Book Awards

We were delighted to discover that Novel Studio alumna Katharine Light has been shortlisted for the 2024 Selfies Book Awards for her debut novel, Like Me.

Launched by BookBrunch in 2018 to recognise excellence in the self-publishing market, the awards are sponsored by Ingram’s self-publishing platform, IngramSpark®, and are run in association with the London Book Fair and Nielsen BookData.

The winners will be announced at this year’s London Book Fair on Tuesday 12 March.

Also on the adult fiction shortlist with Katharine are Shooters by Julia Boggio, Ostler by Susan Grossey, Hidden Depths by Jason Mann, Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Alice McVeigh, The Eagle and The Cockerel by Alan Rhode and Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R Weaver.

Katharine will be one of our guests at the spring term City Writes on 27 March, so if you want to hear her read and talk about her path to publication, do register here.

And if you want to find out more about the Novel Studio, the course Katharine took at City, come and meet one of our tutors, Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone, who will be manning the Novel Studio enquiry desk at our free short course taster event on March 26.

Congratulations to Katharine and all the shortlisted writers. We look forward to hearing more next week!

Writing Short Courses Newsletter Spring 2024

It’s pretty cold out still, but the snowdrops are here and spring is just around the corner…promise! For even more cheer, here’s the latest from our writing short course alumni and tutors.

The Novel Studio Alumni

 

Lara Haworth’s debut novel Monumenta is due out with Canongate in July. Pre-order here.

 

Jo Cunningham’s debut cosy crime novel Death by Numbers is due out with Hachette in August. You can pre-order here.

 

Katharine Light has been shortlisted for The Selfies 2024 in the adult fiction category for her novel Like Me.

 

Current Novel Studio student Jill Craig has been published in Eggplusfrog.

 

Peter Forbes’ Narrative Non Fiction alumnus Aniefiok Ekpoudom’s debut Where We Come From: Rap, Home & Hope in Modern Britain, was published by Faber last month. Jimi Famurewa reviewed it in The Evening Standard here.

Alumna Sophie Rutenbar, an expert on Haiti were she has worked, has won an International Affairs Fellowship from the US Council on Foreign Relations and is writing for the prestigious Brookings Institute.

 

Former City tutor Marcelle Bernstein’s Fact Based Storytelling alumnus Steve Young has published a book on Motherwell Cricket Club with Troubador publishing.

 

Susan Grossman’s Travel Writing alumna Yvette Cook has published an article in the Independent about travelling by train to Slovenia and another on Boscastle.

Tutor News

Writing for Children tutor Bryony Pearce has her debut Middle Grade novel, Hannah Messenger and the Gods of Hockwold, coming out in June 6, and she has sold a new YA fiction, Aphrodite (an Aphrodite retelling), which is due out in 2025. 

 

One-day Courses

There are plenty of options for anyone keen on one-day writing courses: our ever-popular Introduction to Copywriting with Maggie Richards is available monthly; while our Writing the Memoir course is now taught by the brilliant Anna Wilson. Our Writing for the Web and Digital Media continues to be run by the expert broadcast journalist Holly Powell-Jones; and the dynamic duo of Anna Tsekouras and Pete Austin, aka Anon Agency, run our Intro to Branding course.

Opportunities

Our year-long Novel Studio course for aspiring novelists is now open for applications for 2024/25 intake, with a deadline of 30th June 2024. All successful applicants are automatically entered into the Novel Studio literary agent competition, with the top three applications sent to Lucy Luck, literary agent at C&W Agency with a view to representation.

There is also a fully funded scholarship for the course, The Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship, available to a talented applicant from a low-income household.

Our Writing for Social Impact course continues to offer a scholarship for one young student (18-25) from an underrepresented background and/or facing financial difficulty. Please contact the tutor, Ciaran Thapar, for more information on this opportunity.

All current students of Introduction to CopywritingWriting for Business and Narrative Non-Fiction courses are eligible to submit an idea for a blog post for short courses. If the idea is accepted, and the written piece meets our standards, it will be professionally edited and published on our blog.

City Writes

This spring sees the return of City Writes, our termly showcase for all the great writing talent coming out of the creative writing short courses at City. This term our guest authors will be Laurence Kershook and Katharine Light (see above) both alumni of the Novel Studio.

To join us at the event on March 27th at 7pm on Zoom, please register for free HERE.

And if you would like to enter the competition to win the chance to share the stage with Laurence and Katharine, please visit here for all the submission details. Deadline for entries is this Friday 1st March! That’s tomorrow!!

Writing Retreat

This May the Ruppin Agency Writers’ Studio is returning to Paris for another edition of our spring writing retreat. A literary agent and a published author and university lecturer are teaming up to guide writers through five days of focussed writing, offering individual feedback, advice and group exercises. They’re offering £200 off the full price to anyone who quotes PARIS2024 (or mentions where they heard about this).

Open Evening

And finally, we are running an open evening with taster sessions on March 26th at 6pm. There’ll also be a dedicated Novel Studio enquiry desk manned by tutor Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone for anyone who wants to find out more about our flagship year-long course. Register HERE.

That’s all for now. Keep on writing and keep your stories coming into us. And huge congratulations to all our alumni and tutors.

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