Creative and Academic Writing 2017-2018



We're proud to report on the numerous prizes and publications over the past year by alumni and tutors of the Diploma in Creative Writing and the Master’s in Creative Writing, and publishing by our academic staff. In all cases, follow links to read excerpts (and full text, in some cases), author profiles, and to find purchasing information.

The Diploma in Creative Writing began in 1998 and is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2018. 

Prizes and residencies

Mogford Prize

Diploma in Creative Writing alumnae Jane Cammack won this year's Mogford prize, worth £10,000.

"I was thrilled to win the Mogford Prize. I am thankful to everyone on the Creative Writing Diploma, especially my tutors who taught me the skills that are necessary for creative imaginations."

"The Creative Writing Diploma is the most complete preparation for a writer. Before starting the course I would not have believed how poetry can help description, how drama can help dialogue. I loved every module."

The winning story is available to read here: www.oxford-hotels-restaurants.co.uk/mogford-prize/mogford-prize-previous-winners. 

Mellon-Sawyer Post-War: Commemoration, Reconstruction and Reconciliation

Four students were awarded residencies on the prestigious 2017-18 Mellon-Sawyer Post-War: Commemoration, Reconstruction and Reconciliation series, jointly organised by Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University. 

Winchester, Fish Publishing

Diploma alumna and Departmental staff member Gail Anderson won 1st Prize for Poetry and 1st Prize for Memoir at the Winchester Writers’ Festival in May, and 2nd Prize for Flash Fiction in the Fish Publishing International Writing Competition in March. Her poem ‘Blink’, previously a winner of the Bodleian’s Parallel Universe Poetry Prize, was featured in the 2018 Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual in January; it can be read online on the Bodleian website: www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/science/about/poetry-competition-2016. 

Books and publishing

Student and alumni publishing

Master’s in Creative Writing alumna Stephanie Scott’s first novel, The Sentence, has sold for six figures in USA and Canada, U.K and Commonwealth and France, with an ongoing auction in Spain. The novel will be published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson in June 2019 (U.K. & Commonwealth) and by Doubleday in Spring 2020 (USA & Canada). Read more about this fascinating book and Stephanie’s experience.

Several other Mst in Creative Writing alumni have books coming out in 2018/2019:

Additionally, Kiran's first foray into adult fiction has gone to Picador for a significant six-figure sum after a “hotly contested” 13-publisher auction.

Daisy McNally, a former weekly class and Diploma in Creative Writing student, is due to publish her first novel, I See Through You, in November 2018 with Orion Publishing Group.

MSt Creative Writing alumni gave readings of their recent publications at the Kellogg College Poetry Reading in May 2018; watch Romola Parish, Humphrey Astley, Catherine Higgins-Moore and Mary-Jane Holmes.

Academic staff publishing

Professor Jonathan Michie, the Director of the Department, writes the introduction for the bi-monthly economics journal, International Review of Applied Economics. The content of this journal is downloadable free of charge: www.tandfonline.com/toc/cira20/current

Recent publications by Professor Angus Hawkins, Director of Public and International Programmes:

Dr Paul Barnwell, Director of Studies in Architectural History, Places of Worship in Britain and Ireland, 1150-1350, Rewley House Studies in the Historic Environment 7, (Shaun Tyas, 2018). This is the seventh volume in the series. For readers of the Newsletter who contact the publisher direct, the price is £40 including postage, a savings of £5 on the retail price. Please email shaun@shauntyas.myzen.co.uk. Volumn 6 of the series: www.conted.ox.ac.uk/news/architect-patron-and-craftsman-in-tudor-and-early-stuart-england.

Fiona McCall, D Phil (Lady Margaret Hall, 2008), has had a proposal for a collected edition to be published next year accepted: Church and People in Interregnum Britain, edited collection, with introduction by Professor Bernard Capp (Palgrave/RHS New Perspectives Series, 2019). McCall's other recent publications:

Dr Sandie Byrne, Associate Professor in English Literature and Creative Writing, published a chapter in Autumnal Faces: Old Age in British and Irish Dramatic Narratives, ed. Katarzyna Bronk (Peter Lang, 2017). Additionally, a chapter by Dr Byrne will be included in New Light on Tony Harrison, Edith Hall (Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2018).

Recent articles by Dr Nihan Akyelken, Associate Professor in Sustainable Urban Development, Programme Director MSC in Sustainable Urban Development:

Poetry tutor Jenny Lewis's new book Gilgamesh Retold will be launched in October. Publisher Carcanet says 'Jenny Lewis has produced a versatile and inventive retelling of Gilgamesh which brings alive a story that is resonant today as it was when first composed in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) four millennia ago. She captures the powerful allure of the world’s oldest poem while creating a fast-paced narrative for a new generation of readers, students and scholars. Lewis is the first practising woman poet to produce a full poetic translation.'

Philosophy tutor Julia Weckend co-edited the book, Leibniz’s Legacy and Impact, with Lloyd Strickland. The book will be included in the Routledge Studies in Seventeenth-Century and published January 2019.

Philosophy tutor Dr Eileen Walker's book review of 'Fixing Reference, Imogen Dickie', was published in Ratio, Volume 30 (3), 2017.

Philosophy tutor Mary-Ann Crumplin has published a new book; 'Deep Philosophy, Deep Ecology' (Prometheus Trust, 2018).

Published 4 July 2018