Tag: Writers’ Workshop (page 1 of 3)

Celebrating Writing Success Stories and New Opportunities

September 11, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Outstanding Alumni Achievements

Our writing course alumni continue to reach remarkable heights. Novel Studio alumna Janice Okoh has achieved huge success with her BBC3 Comedy Drama Just Act Normal, while Hannah Begbie’s third novel The Last Weekend was published by Harper Collins to great acclaim.

Novel Studio alumna Anna Mazzola has had an exceptional year, winning the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel 2025 for The Book of Secrets, while her thriller Notes on a Drowning (published under pen name Anna Sharp) has been hailed as one of the ‘best thrillers of 2025’. Lara Haworth’s debut Monumenta has been shortlisted for the Society of Authors McKitterick award, following her 2024 Nero award shortlisting.

Crime Writing alumna Nussaibah Younis has had an astonishing year with her debut Fundamentally (Hachette), earning shortlistings for the Women’s Prize and Wilbur Smith Adventure Prize 2025, plus recognition as an Observer best debut and Times Critic’s Pick. The novel has also been optioned for TV by Boffola Pictures.

Nussaibah Younis

In non-fiction, Travel Writing alumna Yvette Cook has published in Adventure magazine, while Narrative Non-Fiction graduate Josie Le Blond has sold Templehof: The Untold Story of Hitler’s Airport to Bodleian Library Publishing.

Exciting Course Updates

We’re delighted to announce that Lara Haworth, author of Monumenta, will be teaching our Short Story writing course this autumn. Book here for her autumn course.

Our one-day offerings include the newly revamped Introduction to Copywriting with AI with Maggie Richards (bi-monthly), Memoir Workshop with Holly Rigby, and Writing for Social Impact with Ciaran Thapar.

Upcoming Opportunities

Free Online Open Evening – Thursday 18 September, 6pm
Join us for free tasters including copywriting and crime writing, plus a Q&A session. Book here. Attendees receive 10% off their next Creative Writing Short Course (book by midnight the following day).

The Book Edit Writers’ Prize opened for submissions on 1 September. This year’s judge is none other than City alumna and acclaimed author Janice Okoh. If you’re an unpublished novelist from an underrepresented background, submit your first 1,000 words and synopsis for free. Eight winners will read to a curated audience of literary agents and industry professionals. Full details here.

Scholarships Available: Both our Fact-Based Storytelling course (contact Jem Bartholomew) and Writing for Social Impact course (contact Ciaran Thapar) offer scholarships for young people (18-25) from underrepresented backgrounds.

Don’t miss the Creative Digest substack from our PG Creative Writing team for insights into research and teaching practice.

That’s all for now. We look forward to seeing you at the Open Evening and to welcoming you to a City St Georges’ short writing course soon!

Announcing City Writes Spring 2025 Competition Winners

March 20, 2025 / / 0 Comments

By Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone

We’re delighted to announce the winners of the City Writes Spring Competition, all of whom will be reading at our bumper in person City Writes Spring Event 2025, Wednesday, 26th March, 6.30pm in Northampton Square alongside Goldsmiths’ Prize shortlisted author, Han Smith and four of City St George’s Short Course tutors: Jem Bartholomew, Katy Darby, Caroline Green and Martin Ouvry. Register for this wonderful free event now and sit back as we introduce you to our competition winners.

Ellen Bassam is a London-based writer whose work explores the intersections of everyday life, politics, popular culture, and nature. With a background in political campaigning, she brings a sharp, insightful perspective to her writing. Currently, she runs Alternative Route, a zine about walking, with a focus on the experiences and stories of women and girls. Ellen is a Narrative Non-Fiction alumna and will be reading her story, ‘Two y’s and no smiley face’.

Approach to Creative Writing alumna Hatty Nash is a radio producer who writes and reads fiction in her spare time. She joined the BBC on the prestigious Production Trainee Scheme and has since produced programmes for Radio 4, Radio 1, and the World Service, including Woman’s Hour and the Today programme. She grew up in Devon and now lives in East London. Hatty will be reading her story ‘Brainrot’.

Tunde Oyebode is a Nigerian-British architect and writer in London. His fiction, inspired by everyday life, explores themes of relationships, society, and urban environments, reflecting the experiences of the African diaspora. His work has appeared in Stylist Magazine, Obsidian, and Solstice Literary Magazine. Tunde was a finalist for the 2023 London Independent Story Prize and the 2024 Solstice Literary Magazine Prize. He is currently seeking to publish a collection of interconnected short stories and enjoys cycling and photographing architecture. A Short Story Writing and Writers’ Workshop alumnus, Tunde will be reading his story, ‘Immaculate Education’.

Aaron Payne is a Short Story Writing alumnus and unpublished writer who lives in South London. He is working on a story inspired by suburban landmarks: graveyards, allotments, libraries and schools. His reading, ‘Scoop’ is extracted from this story. He is a civil servant.

Mya Shakur is a novice fiction writer with a love for character-driven storytelling. She’s currently working on a collection of memory-inspired pieces, including her winning story ‘Sandwich Bag’, as part of a fictional memoir. After briefly studying Politics and American Studies at university, she took a different path with storytelling remaining a consistent passion throughout. She now writes in her spare time, trying to make sense of it all and has just completed the Approach to Creative Writing course.

For your chance to hear all of these wonderful stories alongside the work of Han Smith and four of our fantastic tutors here at City St George’s register for the City Writes Spring Event 2025, Wednesday, 26th March, 6.30pm in Northampton Square here. We can’t wait to see you there.

City Writes Spring Event 2025: 3rd in the ‘Behind the scenes with our featured tutors series’; Introducing Katy Darby

February 27, 2025 / / 0 Comments
by Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone

The City Writes Spring Event on Wednesday 26th March at 6.30pm in Northampton Square is going to be a bumper evening of storytelling and creative writing insights. Alongside Goldsmiths’ Prize shortlisted author, Han Smith, there will be readings from four of City St. George’s Short Course tutors: Jem Bartholomew, Katy Darby, Caroline Green and Martin Ouvry. Joining them on stage will be this term’s competition winners, taken from students and alumni of City St. George’s short courses. You can find out more about the competition here.

In this blog, we are very excited about introducing Short Story Writing and Writers’ Workshop tutor, Katy Darby. As with the other tutors, I had three questions to ask Katy who, alongside her writing, is co-founder and Director of the brilliant live fiction event, Liars’ League. It will be a treat when Katy steps up to the microphone on the 26th March! She is also a much loved tutor, whose students have gone on to write some truly magical things—Han Smith is one of her former students, as is Imogen Hermes-Gowar, author of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock.

Author and Lecturer Katy Darby

I began by asking Katy to introduce us to her work: ‘I mostly write historical fiction, and my novel The Unpierced Heart, a Victorian Gothic tale of love and betrayal, is available in Penguin paperback. Some of my contemporary short stories appear in the anthology Five by Five from Arachne Press, or are linked from my website katydarby.co.uk. Most recently, I’ve had several new Sherlock Holmes stories published in anthologies from Belanger Books, mostly in the Year of Mystery series (covering the years 1881-1888 so far): there are three more forthcoming this year, including Into the Fire, edited by Margie Deck.’

With her clear passion for teaching, I was intrigued to find out what excited Katy most about teaching. ‘It’s the sheer variety and originality of the stories people tell: whether they are drawing on their own personal experience or just on pure imagination, I am always amazed by how you can give the same prompt to a class of 15 writers and get 15 completely unique and totally different responses to it. I also love introducing short stories I love (for example, Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain”) to students who’ve never read them before and hearing their fresh takes on the characters, the writing and the meaning of the piece. Watching people encountering new possibilities in fiction, whether reading it or writing it, is a thrill that never gets old.’

Finally I asked Katy for that all important ‘one piece of advice’ she would offer to aspiring writers and her answer was an inspiring one. ‘OK, everyone will say “read widely” and of course that’s true—but I’d also say “write widely”. Don’t restrict the genres, styles or stories you explore in your writing any more than you do when it comes to reading books. If you’ve never read sci-fi before, pick it up—equally, if you have an idea for a sci-fi story, write it down! It may not be perfect (spoiler: no first draft is) but if the idea excites you and you have fun writing it, that’s an immense reward. Having fun and experimenting with voice, structure, subject, anything, should be the whole of the law when it comes to writers just setting out, especially short story writers.’

If that’s not encouragement enough to pick up your pen and give it a go, I don’t know what is. For more of this great advice and to hear Katy read from her work in person alongside the other tutors, Han Smith and the competition winners, don’t forget to book your seat for the The City Writes Spring Event on Wednesday 26th March at 6.30pm, Northampton Square. There will be refreshments, a chance to hear more about the short creative writing courses at City St George’s and a special 10% discount for all attendees who sign up for a creative writing course.

Keep an eye on this space for the fourth and final post in the ‘Behind the scenes’ series with our final tutor, Jem Bartholomew. Looking forward to seeing you at the The City Writes Spring Event on Wednesday 26th March at 6.30pm, Northampton Square.

 

 

City Writes Autumn 2024 – A Cracking way to Kick off the Festive Season

December 13, 2024 / / 0 Comments

By Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone

You know you’re on the way to a great festive season when it begins with a night of stories, and the City Writes Autumn 2024 event on the 11th December was a storytelling extravaganza. We had six brilliant competition winning stories, read by their authors, and a reading and Q&A with the wonderfully funny, Novel Studio alumna and debut author, Jo Cunningham. You can enjoy the whole event here, but do read on for further details.

We kicked off with Joanna Bawa’s ominous story about a death prediction app, ‘DeathDefy’. Joanna is an alumna of the Writing the Memoir course. Her story is a powerful reminder of human greed and laziness in the face of climate change and began a theme around predictions and algorithms that Jo Cunningham’s novel, Death By Numbers, would complete.

Writers’ Workshop alumna, Aditi Parekh, was next, reading from her novel, with the working title The Sabbatical. We were transported to The Netherlands following one woman’s attempts to find friends through a very different app. What she found was not a friend exactly, but the meeting was one that provoked much response from the audience. I think we all know someone who thinks a conversation is great when they’ve done all the talking…

We travelled to Northern Ireland next as Short Story Writing alumnus, Robin Sheeran read his story, ‘Summer Job’. A beautifully observed story set in a cemetery, with some very creative grave-digging, ‘Summer Job’ was a treat to listen to.

From fiction to non-fiction, we were in for another very different treat next as Doug Kessler shared an extract from his book-length project, Adam in 20 Snapshots. An alumnus of Narrative Non-Fiction, Doug’s moving reading about an absent brother with Downs Syndrome really captured the audience. Told, as the title suggests, through descriptions of photographs, the extract moved several listeners to tears. This is a book that has an eager audience awaiting its completion.

We were swept back into the world of fiction next with the surprising, shocking and funny story, ‘To Crazy Shane’ written and read by Tunde Oyebode. Tunde is a Writers’ Workshop alumnus, and veteran City Writes competition winner. This story is a riot of observation and action with incisive social commentary spread throughout.

This brilliant story was followed by our last competition winner, Audrey Madden, another Writers’ Workshop alumna. Audrey read an extract from her novel, Matriarchal Lines, taking us right into the heart of a family reunion with a feisty grandmother winning at cards, and two little toddlers running off with a set of pretty knives. We were gripped. It was a fabulous reading to end a series of incredibly inspired and inspiring writing from the competition winners. They definitely were showcasing the talent of City’s short creative writing courses.

Luckily, we had Jo Cunningham as our published guest to follow these wonderful tales with two brilliant and hilarious readings from her cosy crime novel, Death By Numbers.

Author and guest alumna Jo Cunningham

 

Death By Numbers is a wonderfully funny book about actuary Una whose numbers on predicted deaths in seaside resorts are all wrong. There are some unusual deaths that don’t fit her predictions. Imagine her worry when she discovers they are happening in her mum’s home town and to friends of her mum and her mum’s new boyfriend, soon to be husband… This is a must read for the festive season.

If you haven’t read it already, this is the novel you need to escape into after all that food and drink. Jo generously answered questions from host and audience on her writing journey, how to write comedy, how to research and plan (if not in the way you might expect), and the challenges of writing a series. The next one is out in August of 2025 and is set around the Supreme Cat Show (crufts for cats). I for one, can’t wait!

Thanks to all the readers, our wonderful guest Jo Cunningham and the audience. Click here for a video of the event, here for an interview with Jo, and do look out for further information on next term’s City Writes. City Writes Spring 2025 is going to be special. An in-person event with competition winners, the supremely talented alumna, Han Smith as our author guest, and readings from tutors. Watch this space for more.

Announcing the City Writes Autumn 2024 Competition Winners!

December 3, 2024 / / 0 Comments

 By Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone

Congratulations to Joanna Bawa, Doug Kessler, Audrey Madden, Tunde Oyebode, Aditi Parekh and Robin Sheeran, this term’s winners of the City Writes competition! From complex family histories, through childhood summer afternoons, airport queues, befriending apps and graveyards all the way to AI envisioned futures, this term’s selection of writing has it all. You can hear these fantastic stories being read by their authors alongside debut crime writer Jo Cunningham, at this term’s City Writes event on the 11th December at 7pm on Zoom. Register here to come along and read on for more information on our wonderful winners.

Joanna Bawa is a professional and creative writer, currently working as a ghostwriter. This complements her work as a cognitive behavioural therapist, combining an appreciation of the power of words and the complexity of human nature. She belongs to a local writing group where her fiction and poetry has won awards, and her first novel was longlisted in the 2019 Mslexia novel competition. She is working on a second novel, and her piece for City Writes, ‘DeathDefy’, may become a third. Joanna is an alumna of the Writing the Memoir course.

Doug Kessler is an expat Yank who’s lived and worked in London for the last 34 years.
He’s a marketing copywriter and agency founder but pretty new to narrative non-fiction, short stories, and poetry. Adam in 20 Snapshots is his first book-length project, of which he will be reading an extract. Doug is a Narrative Non-Fiction alumnus.

Audrey Madden is currently writing her first book while working in the not for profit arts and culture sector. She has a degree in English & Comparative Literature from Goldsmiths University. Her work is inspired by nature and the different environments that exist across the United States and the UK. A Writers’ Workshop alumna, Audrey will be reading an extract from her novel, Matriarchal Lines.

Aditi Parekh is an aspiring writer and student of Writers’ Workshop. She is interested in human psychology, particularly the dark triads and group dynamics. She is currently working on a novel, with the working title The Sabbatical, which describes a woman’s struggle with drug addiction and her descent into madness. She will be reading an extract from the novel.

Tunde Oyebode is a Nigerian-British architect and writer based in East London. Drawing inspiration from everyday life, his fiction explores human relationships and African diaspora experiences. His work has been featured in Stylist Magazine, Obsidian, and Solstice Literary Magazine. A finalist for the 2023 London Independent Story Prize and the 2024 Solstice Literary Magazine Prize, he was also nominated for Best of the Net. Tunde is currently looking to publish a collection of interconnected short stories. Outside writing, he enjoys cycling and photographing architecture. A Writers’ Workshop alumnus, Tunde will be reading ‘To Crazy Shane’.

Robin Sheeran is a native of Belfast. He studied Film and Literature at Warwick University and is a former BBC journalist. Robin is interested in producing stonking characters and crackling dialogue. His work uses dark humour to examine how we relate to each other. Robin is the current holder of the international Piazza Grande Religion Journalism Award for his writing for New Humanist. He ghostwrote Going the Distance, the autobiography of endurance cyclist Joe Barr, published by Gill Books in 2021. A Short Story Writing alumnus, Robin will be reading his story, ‘Summer Job’.

Just from reading their biographies you get a sense of the night of stories that awaits on Wednesday 11th December at 7pm over Zoom. Alongside these wonderful competition winners will be our cosy crime author and Novel Studio alumna, Jo Cunningham, whose novel Death By Numbers came out earlier this year. Register here to listen to all these authors on 11th December at 7pm. Can’t wait to see you there!

Guest alumna Jo Cunningham, author of Death by Numbers

Writing Short Course News Roundup 2024

October 8, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Whether you’re taking a course with us this term or were a student in the past, we want to inspire your writing with the latest news from our short course alumni and tutors.

The Novel Studio 

Alan Gray (also alumnus of WW and SS) has been awarded the Sonny and Gita UK Scholarship to complete his MA in creative writing at UEA.

Kathrine Bancroft has had one of her poems longlisted for the 2024 Aurora Prize. She is also a London Independent Story Prize Poetry Finalist.

Katy Darby’s Writers’ Workshop and Short Story Writing alumna Isabel Blake has been accepted on the Creative Writing MA at UEA, while Erica Buist has just completed her Cambridge MSt in Creative Writing, has been longlisted for the BBC’s annual callout for scripts and is now teaching Creative Writing at City Lit.

Peter Forbes’ Narrative Non Fiction alumna Melissa Cornet has had her firstEnglish piece published in July in the London Review of Books, about her work in Afghanistan on Gender apartheid. She is also confirmed to publish a piece in the Guardian this month.

Tutor News

Anna Wilson has two books out this autumn: Be Back Soon is a picture book about swallow migration, illustrated by Jenny Bloomfield and published by Andersen Press and A Story of the Seasons, a large-format non-fiction picture book about seven habitats throughout the seasons, illustrated by Carolina Rabei and published by Nosy Crow and the National Trust. Both books have been translated into other European languages including French, German and Danish.

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 (see above). And the dynamic duo of Anna Tsekouras and Pete Austin, aka Anon Agency, run our Intro to Branding course. This term we are also introducing a brand new course, Content Writing, taught by the fabulous Tamsin Mackay.

Opportunities

City Writes

City Writes is City, University of London’s termly writing event, showcasing the best of City Short Courses writing talent.

Hosted by longstanding short courses tutor, Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone, and into its seventh year, City Writes provides an opportunity for the best new writers from the City Short Courses community to read an extract of their work, sharing the stage with one of our published alumni or tutors reading from their new or award-winning publication.

This term’s guest alumna will be debut cosy crime author and Novel Studio alumna, Jo Cunningham. Jo’s novel, Death by Numbers, was published by Constable in August this year. This delicious crime has had rave reviews and who could resist a novel about an actuary investigating a spate of deaths in Eastbourne? Hilarious and gripping, this is the perfect novel to see you through the cold winter nights. Buy your copy ahead of the event here.

To join Jo on the virtual stage, all you need to do is submit your best 1,000 words of creative fiction or non-fiction (we do accept young adult fiction but don’t currently accept children’s fiction) on any subject to rebekah.lattin-rawstrone.2@city.ac.uk with details of the City short course you are taking or have taken by midnight on Friday 15th November. Competition and submission guidelines can be found here. 

We can’t wait to read your submissions and if you are keen to secure your place for the night, you can register for the event here. Good luck!

Key Dates:

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 Copywriting, Writing 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.

The annual Book Edit Writers’ Prize is open for submissions until 15 October 2024. Judged this year by Novel Studio alumna Lara Haworth and run in association with Legend Press, this is a fantastic (and free) opportunity for any unpublished novelist from a community currently underrepresented in UK publishing. What’s up for grabs? Chance to share your work with top agents. A mentoring session with a Legend Press Commissioning Editor. A supportive community of talented writers and tailored advice from industry experts. For more details please click HERE.

Open Evening

And finally, we are running an open evening with taster sessions on 11th December. Details will be available soon but watch this space or check the website for links to registration.

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

City Writes Summer 2024: A Monumental Event

July 12, 2024 / / 0 Comments

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.

City Writes Autumn 2023 Winners Announced

November 30, 2023 / / 0 Comments

By Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone

As the showcase creative writing short courses event approaches, we’re delighted to announce the competition winners who will be reading their work at 7pm on the 13th December with the brilliant tutor and author, Caroline Green. With stories of mystery, murder, mayhem, the complexities of identity and the disappearance of all women, this will be a night you won’t want to miss. You can register for the event here.

This term’s winners are: Mike Clarke, Martin Corteel, Cathie Mullen, Emma O’Driscoll, Tunde Oyebode and Vasundhara Singh. Read on to find out more about these brilliant short creative writing class alumni.

Mike Clarke studied the Novel Studio (when it was the Certificate in Novel Writing), Writers’ Workshop and Caroline Green’s Crime and Thriller Writing Course at City University. He also has an MA in Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University. Several of his short stories have been read in different parts of the world by the renowned Liars League. His non-fiction writing on pubs is regularly featured in the national press. He also dabbles in performing stand-up comedy and is just finishing a novel.

Martin Corteel worked as an editor in London book publishing houses for more years than he would care to mention, and during this time he wrote and anonymously had published a number of books of very little substance. The novel he’s writing, entitled Dover Souls, recounts apocryphal family tales of skullduggery set amongst battling publicans at the outset of the First World War. He recently completed several creative writing courses at City University, including the Writers’ Workshop, and lives in North West London.

Cathie Mullen is from Ireland but has lived in Germany for many years. Until recently she was head of an international school. Her writing has been published by The Educational Company of Ireland, Writer’s Forum and The Mersey Review. She’s currently working on a memoir. Authors whose work has recently inspired her include Octavia Bright, Claire Keegan and Sinéad Gleeson. Her passions include theatre and swimming (in all seasons). Cathie is an alumna of the Approach to Creative Writing course.

Originally from Dorset, Emma O’Driscoll lives in Brussels where she works as a press officer for the EU. She is currently writing a crime novel inspired by her love of golden-age detective fiction from the 1920s and 1930s. Emma is an alumna of the Crime and Thriller Writing Summer School and a student on the Novel Writing and Longer Works course. Aside from writing, she enjoys running, painting, and walking her border terrier, Karenin.

Writers’ Workshop alumnus Tunde Oyebode is a London-based architect and writer who explores the intricacies of everyday societal dynamics and relationships in his fiction. His work has appeared in Stylist Magazine, Obsidian Issue 48.1 and the 2021 Michael Terrence Anthology and also pending publication in LISP Anthology 2023. Some of his other stories have been shortlisted and longlisted in competitions like Chester B Himes Memorial Fiction Contest, Exeter Short Story Prize and the Bristol Short Story Prize. He aspires to publish a collection of his short stories.

Vasundhara Singh is a graduate of Journalism from Kamala Nehru college, Delhi University. Alumina of City University of London’s Novel Studio programme, she is one of the winners of City Writes Spring 2021.

With writers of this quality reading alongside tutor and writer extraordinaire, Caroline Green, City Writes Autumn 2023 promises to be an evening you won’t want to miss. Register for the event at 7pm on the 13th December on Zoom here. See you there!

Autumn 2023 News from our Writing Community

October 11, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Happy Autumn! Here’s the latest news from our fantastic writing short course alumni and tutors…

 

Alumni News

Author and City short course alumna Deepa Anappara

Oneworld have acquired The Last of Earth, the second novel by Novel Studio alumna Deepa Anappara. The novel will be published in hardback as a lead title in March 2025. An historical novel set in mid-19th century Tibet, Juliet Mabey at Oneworld said ‘I’m delighted to be working with such a bold and unique storyteller.’

 

Katy Darby’s Writers’ Workshop and Short Story Writing students have had more astonishing success. Rupert Dastur has sold his debut novel Cloudless to Penguin. Richie Jones was shortlisted for the London Magazine Short Story Prize. Sean Hannaway, as S. P. Hannaway, recently had a short story published in Stand (‘This or That or Any Other Thing’) and one is forthcoming in The Pomegranate (‘Exit Pye, with Cushion’). Sean was also shortlisted for the Bristol Prize in 2021 for his short story ‘Love, Hunger’.

Peter Forbes’ Narrative Non Fiction alumni have been as busy as ever!

Narrative Non Fiction Alumna Claire Martin’s debut, Heirs of Ambition

NNF alumna Claire Martin published her debut book Heirs of Ambition: The Making of the Boleyns in September with History Press. Ed O’Brien’s article ‘Hardcore Landscaping: how to grow a garden on sand, gravel and concrete’ was published in The Guardian on 28 July 2023; and Alice Kent’s memoir  ‘And Those are Stars’ was published in Hinterland, Issue 13, 2023.

Amal Abdi, graduate of Holly Rigby’s Narrative Non Fiction course, has been commissioned to write a new play for London’s Rich Mix theatre venue. The play will run for two dates on Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th October and can be booked here.

Susan Grossman’s Travel Writing Student, Yvette Cook, has had successful travel journalism commissions from The Independent, The Slovenia Tourist Board and BBC Sky at Night.

Competitions

City Writes, City’s termly writing competition for all past and present City short course writing students, is open for submissions. This term’s event is on Wednesday 13th December at 7pm on Zoom and the published guest author will be writer and City tutor, Caroline Green. Not only does Caroline write fiction for young people and adults, she is also the much valued and acclaimed teacher of the Crime and Thriller Writing short course here at City. From YA, through psychological thriller, to supernatural detective fiction, Caroline Green is an inspirational powerhouse. Register here now to save your spot for the night.

If you would like to read your work in front of a supportive audience and share the virtual stage with Caroline on the 13th December, all you need to do is submit your best 1,000 words of fiction or creative non-fiction (we accept YA but sadly NOT poetry, drama or children’s fiction) to rebekah.lattin-rawstrone.2@city.ac.uk by midnight on Friday 10th November. Please check the full submission details here.

 The Book Edit Writers’ Prize 2023 is open for submissions. Judged this year by Deepa Anappara, and in association with Legend Press, the prize is free to enter and open to all British or UK-based unpublished, unagented novelists from communities currently underrepresented in UK publishing. For more details visit the prize page here. Deadline 23 October.

 Scholarships

We offer a fully-funded place for a young adult (18-25) from an underrepresented background and/or facing financial difficulty on our Writing for Social Impact course. To apply, please contact the tutor Ciaran Thapar explaining why you’d like to attend. This course is now offered monthly to reflect the increased demand.

 Tutor News

Author and Short Course Tutor Katy Darby

Short Story and Writers’ Workshop tutor Katy Darby has three new historical short stories coming out in anthologies in November, with Belanger Books.

Writing for Children tutor Bryony Pearce’s new Mid-grade novel, Hannah Messenger and the Gods of Hockwold, was published in June, and her short story is in a new sci fi anthology Parsec in Print.

Writing the Memoir tutor Anna Wilson’s picture book Grandpa and the Kingfisher was shortlisted for the Wainwright Nature Prize, illustrated by Sarah Massini.

And finally, we have a new Writing for Business tutor on Monday evenings, Tamsin Mackay. Welcome, Tamsin! And huge thanks to Jenny Stallard, who Tamsin is replacing, for her brilliant teaching the past few years.

Happy Writing Everyone. and congrats to all our brilliant alumni and tutors.

City Writes Summer 2023 Event: A Braw Night to Remember

July 6, 2023 / / 0 Comments

By Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone

There’s nothing like an evening of readings from brilliant writers to make a summer evening special and this term’s City Writes on the 5th July was a festival of writing filled with moments of tension, terror and tenderness.

 

We kicked off the evening with the first of our competition winners, Novel Writing and Longer Works alumnus, Richard Hastings, who read from his novel-in-progress. The extract, ‘Jumble’, took us into old boxes in his character’s mother’s cupboard where it turns out she’d kept the right half of several pairs of his old childhood shoes, right down to one tiny little wellington boot. The whole audience were drawn into that moment of connection between mother and son.

 

From the importance of one set of objects to the embodied resonance of a piano, we took a step into memoir and the importance of the matrilineal connection of music next with Novel Studio alumna, Helen Ferguson, who read from her memoir-in-progress. We were lucky enough to see, in the background of Helen’s screen, the very piano her extract, ‘My Grandmother’s Piano’, spoke so eloquently about. The words were music to our ears and we look forward to hearing more about this project.

 

We took a step into the dark and unpredictable world of the social media alias next, in an extract from another Novel Studio alumna, Lana Younis, reading from her revenge comedy, Play The Long Game. The chat buzzed with delight at the northern, scathing voice of the protagonist as she went over her day and discovered some salacious news in her evening bath with her glass of merlot. This is another novel-in-progress we’re eager to read more of.

 

We stepped away from the horrors in one mind, to the dangers of airport security next with an emotionally taut and affecting short story by Introduction to Copywriting alumna Camille Poole, ‘Brown Male’. Along with Camille the whole audience were moved by sharing the character’s experience of watching her brave, young superhero son face the humiliation of institutional racism, whilst shaming herself for daring to call it out. Such a powerful story that there was a real sense of pause before we could move on.

 

Novel Studio alumna, Emily Shamma had the difficult task of following Camille, but she took us on her own emotional journey in her piece, ‘Kate’, an extract from her novel-in-progress, The Complicit. The extract followed Kate as she navigated the complexities of a miscarriage that was initially an unintended pregnancy turned from happy uncertainty to grief.

 

Our audience were certainly on a rollercoaster of feeling that our final competition winner and Novel Studio alumna, Kate Henderson, refused to let us get off. She read her short story, ‘What Happened at Judith’s’, a masterful account of a young girl’s afternoon play date that ended with a painful revelation and a broken arm. Told in spars

e and meticulously navigated prose, it was a fabulous way to end the readers from this extremely talented bunch of City’s Creative Writing short course alumni.

 

Luckily, we had the joy of hearing from Writers’ Workshop alumna and prize-winning writer, Emma Grae next. Emma read short extracts from both her novels: her Scots Book of the Year 2022 debut, Be Guid tae yer Mammy, published by Unbound in 2021 and her second novel, The Tongue She Speaks published by Luath Press in October 2022.

 

Emma’s writing is rich with Scots and it was brilliant to get the chance to hear the writing come alive in her voice. Following these extracts, we were treated to a Q&A in which Emma explored not only the inspirations behind her work, but also her publishing journey. Teasing out the importance of valuing all voices and entering into the publishing industry with one’s eyes wide open, Emma gave us much to think about. She also shared great news about her new works, a book in Scots for children and a third novel. We can’t wait to read them.

 

City Writes Summer 2023 Event was a braw night indeed. If you missed it, you can watch the event HERE. And don’t forget City Writes is a termly event. Find out more and watch out for competition dates on this blog. If this term is anything to go by, the work at City Writes goes from strength to strength.

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