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Postgraduate Creative Writing Menu

More Alumni Publications

See below for more from graduates of the Lancaster Writing Programme.

Rajeev Balasubramanyam is currently studying for a PhD at Lancaster with an AHRC bursary from the Moving Manchester: Mediating Marginalties project. His first novel, In Beautiful Disguises, won a Betty Trask Prize in 2000 and was nominated for the Guardian First Fiction Prize. His short-stories have been published in several anthologies, including New Writing 12 (Picador), Fugue, and So What Kept You? (Flambard). He was editor of Tell Tales Vol 2., an anthology designed to rekindle enthusiasm for the short story, and is currently working on his second novel, The Dreamer, based on his Ian St James winning short-story of the same title. Click here for a review of In Beautiful Disguises.

Angela Barry lives and works in Bermuda. Her writing has been published in The Massachusetts Review and she is the recipient of a James Michener Creative Writing Fellowship. Gorée: Point of Departure (see above) was published in 2010, and her collection of stories, Endangered Species, was published by Peepal Tree Press in November 2002: “Centred on Bermuda, but traversing America, London, the Gambia and the Cote d'lvoire, these stories explore both the ways in which differences of place, colour, class and culture divide people of the African diaspora, and also the ways in which aspects of their culture, such as food and music, make for a unity that is real, if submarine… This is undoubtedly the most significant work of fiction to come out of Bermuda…” (Amazon)

Helen Clare's Mollusc was published by Comma Press in 2004. Helen's work was featured in Faber's First Pressings anthology in 1998, which heralded a new generation of British poets. Her poems have since won a number of national prizes and commendations, including First Prizes in the London Writers Competition 2002 and in the Yorkshire Open 1999. Her poems have also appeared in numerous magazines. Having graduated from Lancaster University's Creative Writing Programme with distinction, Helen now teaches Creative Writing for their Department of Continuing Education and is a freelance consultant in creativity and science education. Click here to visit Helen's website.

John Corless lives and writes in County Mayo in the Irish Riviera. His poetry is a mix of political, satirical, ecclesiastical and rural and has been described as Paul Durcan meets The Sawdoctors. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University (2008) and is currently researching for a PhD. He writes poetry, fiction and drama. His work has been published in magazines and collections worldwide. Some of his poems have been referred to the Attorney General for approval. His first collection of poems Are You Ready? (Salmon Poetry) was launched in June 2009.

Martin Goodman was awarded his PhD in Creative Writing at Lancaster in January 2007. His first novel (On Bended Knees, 1992) was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award. After years of publishing non-fiction, incorporating experiences from his travels, which include periods teaching in China, Thailand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Italy, Slippery When Wet (Transita, 2006) marks his return to the novel. His other publications include I Was Carlos Castaneda (2001). Martin received an Authors' Foundation Award from the Society of Authors to support research work on his biography, Survive and Suffer: The Extreme Life of J.S.Haldane (Simon & Schuster, 2007). Click here to visit Martin's website.

George Green has been with Lancaster's Department of English and Creative Writing for sixteen years, starting with an MA in 1992. He was awarded his PhD by the Department in 2006. Although he used to write a lot of short stories he is now moving towards longer fiction. The novel he submitted for his PhD, Hound, published by Transworld in August 2003, is a take on The Tain, the Irish myth cycle. The follow-up, Hawk, was published by Transworld in 2005. He is now a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English & Creative Writing, and his research areas are Irish fiction, the Western and the nature of Biography. Click here to visit George's website, and here for his departmental webpage.

Geraldine Green achieved a Distinction in her MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and is now working on her PhD at Lancaster, supported by an AHRC postgraduate award. Her first collection, The Skin, was published in 2002 by Flarestack. Her second collection, Passio, also published by Flarestack, was out in April 2006. She lives in Cumbria where she runs writing workshops, and is also a tutor for Continuing Education at Lancaster University. She is an Associate Editor of Poetry Bay. Click here for Geraldine's account of reading her poems in New York, and here for a profile of Geraldine. See a clip of Geraldine reading at: http://www.poetryvlog.com/.

Stephen Hanson was awarded an MA in Creative Writing in 2006. He has published three earlier collections of poems: Misspelt Youth, 1995, A Pack of Suggestives, 1996, and Burning Poems, 1999. He was awarded The Sir James Kilfedder Memorial Bursary for Arts 2003 and used the bursary to attend the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, Co Monaghan, where he worked on completing his new collection of poetry, Knitted Wings, published in 2006 by Summer Palace Press.

Justin Hill achieved a Distinction in the Creative Writing MA at Lancaster University in 2000. Born in Grand Bahamas Island in 1971, Justin grew up in York and spent seven years as a volunteer aid worker in rural China and Eritrea. His first book, A Bend in the Yellow River, was published in 1998; another travel book, Ciao Asmara, was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Award, and his first novel, The Drink and Dream Teahouse (2002) was translated into ten languages and banned in China. It was awarded a Betty Trask Award and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. His second novel, Passing Under Heaven, was published in 2004. Click here for Justin's website.

Rhiannon Hooson lived in rural Mid-Wales until moving to the North-West six years ago. In 2002 she achieved a distinction in the Master's Degree in Creative Writing at Lancaster, and is currently in the process of completing her PhD in the Department of English and Creative Writing. Her poetry had been published in various journals, and her first collection is This Reckless Beauty (Wild Women Press, 2004). Click here to read a review of Rhiannon's work.

Alison MacLeod took Lancaster University's MA in Creative Writing in 1987-88. In 1990, she started teaching literature and creative writing at the University of Chichester, where she is now Professor of Contemporary Fiction. In 1996, her first novel, The Changeling, was published in the U.K. and U.S. In 2005, The Wave Theory of Angels was published by Hamish Hamilton and Penguin Books in Canada. Her short story collection, Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction, was released in September 2007 by Hamish Hamilton.

Nigel McLoughlin completed both his MA and his PhD in Creative Writing at Lancaster University. He is the author of the poetry collections: At The Waters' Clearing (Flambard / Black Mountain, 2001) and Songs For No Voices (Lagan, 2004).He is Field Chair in Creative Writing at the University of Gloucestershire, and his third collection of poems (the creative project from his PhD), Blood, has been published by Bluechrome (2005). His new book, Dissonances, is now out, also published by Bluechrome (2007). Click here to visit Nigel's profile.

Paul Magrs was born in the North East of England.He obtained three degrees from Lancaster University: a first-class BA in English, an MA in Creative Writing and a PhD in English (1995). He taughtthe English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia andnow lectures part time at Manchester Metropolitan University. He devotes the rest of his time to writingfiction for both adults and children. He lives in Manchester and has published over twenty books, both fiction and non-fiction. Click here to visit Paul's website.

Ian Marchant graduated from Lancaster in 1992. He has written two novels, In Southern Waters (1999) and The Battle for Dole Acre (2001). He has run a second-hand bookshop, and is a comedian, singer song-writer and cabaret performer. His first work of non-fiction was Parallel Lines (2003) and his most recent book, The Longest Crawl, is published by Bloomsbury 2006. Click here for Ian's website.

Micheline Maylor achieved a distinction in the Creative Writing MA in 2001 at Lancaster. She moved back to Canada shortly after the completion of her degree, though she is pursuing a Ph.D. at Newcastle and has won both an International Research Scholarship and an Overseas Research Scholarship. Currently she is the editor of FreeFall magazine and the president of a non-profit the Alexandra Writers Centre in Calgary Canada. The publisher of The Full Depth is Wolsak & Wynn (Toronto, Canada).

Tariq Mehmood is studying for a PhD at Lancaster with an AHRC bursary from the Moving Manchester: Mediating Marginalties project. His first novel, Hand on the Sun, was published in 1983 and focused on the issues faced by Asian youth of the 1970's. His second novel, While There Is Light (2003) deals with some aspects of the case of the Bradford 12. This year he will have two books for children published. Tariq writes in two languages, English and Pothowari, his mother tongue (also called Pahari and Punjabi), which he has helped to bring into the written form, particularly in prose. Click here for the Guardian review of While There Is Light.

Andrew Miller received his PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster in 1997. In February 1996, after six years of writing, Ingenious Pain was accepted for publication by Sceptre (an imprint of Hodder and Stoughton). Casanova (Casanova in Love in the USA) was published in 1998, and his third novel, Oxygen, in September 2001. The books have been published in over twenty countries. The Optimists was published in March 2005. Click here for a profile of Andrew.

Jacob Polley achieved a Distinction in the Lancaster Creative Writing MA in 1997. His first book of poems, The Brink (Picador, 2003), was a Poetry Book Society Choice, and was short-listed for five awards, including the T.S. Eliot, John Llewellyn Rhys and Forward prizes. He is Visiting Fellow Commoner in the Creative Arts for 2005-2007 at Trinity College, Cambridge. Little Gods was published by Picador in 2006. Click here for a review of The Brink and here for an interview with Jacob Polley.

Ray Robinson was awarded a Creative Writing PhD at Lancaster University in 2006. He was already a practicing writer, and had also successfully completed an MA in Creative Writing at Lancaster in 1999. Half way through his second year of Ph.D. study, Electricity was accepted for publication by Picador (released in trade paperback on March 17th 2006). His new novel, The Man Without, will be published by Picador in July 2008. Click here for a more detailed account of the writing of Electricity, and here for the Guardian review.

Monique Roffey's first novel, Sun Dog (Scribner), was published in 2002 (published in the US as August Frost in 2004). Since then she has had short stories published in various anthologies (most recently New Writing 13) and has worked as a Centre Director for The Arvon Foundation. She took up an RLF post at Sussex University in October 2006. Monique has recently been awarded her PhD in Creative Writing at Lancaster. It takes the form of a novel, entitled The White Woman on the Green Bicycle, published in 2009 by Simon & Schuster. Click here for Monique's website.

Ian Seed is editor of Shadowtrain books and webzine. His poems, fiction, translations and reviews have appeared in magazines such as Green Integer Review, PN Review, Shearsman, Stride, and Tears in the Fence. Anonymous Intruder is his first full-length collection. Click here for more information on Ian's collection.

Sarah Stovell committed herself to writing fiction after an Arvon course in 2003 and followed this with an MA in Creative Writing at Lancaster University. Mothernight became part of her MA project, although it was not finished for another year. Sarah now lives and writes in Wallingford, Oxfordshire. She works as an antiquarian bookseller and part-time teacher of Creative Writing. Click here for Sarah's own site.

Deborah Swift has worked in the theatre and at the BBC as a set and costume designer. She has a BA in Theatre Design and an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University. She lives in Windermere, Cumbria. The Lady's Slipper is her first novel, and she is now working on a companion piece. Visit Deborah's website.

Abigail Zammit's Voices from the Land of Trees is forthcoming in June 2007, published by Smokestack Books. Its poems, which tell the story of Guatemala's thirty-six years of civil war, are spoken by many different voices - mothers, missionaries, children, soldiers, guerrillas, Indians, students and journalists - each struggling to be heard above the sound of gunfire and weeping, each trying to break the silence.