Mr Andrew Cowan
Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing
| Job Title | Contact | Location |
|---|---|---|
|
Senior Lecturer
in Creative Writing |
A dot Cowan at uea dot ac dot uk
Tel: +44 (0)1603 59 3531 |
Arts Building 1.56 |
Biography
Andrew Cowan is a graduate of UEA with a first degree in English and American Studies and an MA in Creative Writing. Before joining the faculty in 2004 he was twice a Royal Literary Fund writing fellow at UEA, working with students on their expository and creative writing skills. He was a longstanding tutor in Creative Writing for the Arvon Foundation and is the author of five novels, which have been published in 12 languages, including PIG, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize, shortlisted for five other literary awards, and won a Betty Trask Award, the Authors' Club First Novel Award, the Ruth Hadden Memorial Prize, a Scottish Arts Council Book Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. COMMON GROUND and CRUSTACEANS both received competitive Arts Council bursaries. WHAT I KNOW was the recipient of an Arts Council Writers' Award and was published in 2005. His Creative Writing guidebook, THE ART OF WRITING FICTION, was published by Pearson Longman in 2011. His new novel WORTHLESS MEN will be published by Sceptre in 2013.
Career
Andrew Cowan is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing. He is the Director of Creative Writing, and Deputy Head of the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing. He is a graduate of the MA and was for some years the Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at UEA. He is the author of five novels: PIG, which won several literary prizes including the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and was longlisted for the Booker Prize, COMMON GROUND, CRUSTACEANS, WHAT I KNOW, which received an Arts Council Writers' Award, and WORTHLESS MEN, which will be published by Sceptre in 2013. His Creative Writing guidebook THE ART OF WRITING FICTION was published in 2011. He teaches on the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including the MA in Prose Fiction and the PhD in Creative and Critical Writing. In 2010 he gave invited keynote presentations at the 'Beyond the Workshop' symposium at Napier University, Edinburgh, the 'Writing Across Cultures' conference at City University, Hong Kong, and the annual conference of the Australian Association of Writing Programs in Melbourne. In 2011 he wrote the bid for which the UEA Creative Writing programme was awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. He also wrote the bid for which the UEA Creative Writing website – www.newwriting.net - received AHRC funding. In 2012 he was an invited speaker at the AWP annual conference in Chicago, the Institute of English Studies Contemporary Cultures of Writing seminar in London, and at the University of Fudan in China.
Key Research Interests
I recently completed a novel, WORTHLESS MEN, which is set on the home front during the First World War and will be published by Sceptre in 2013. In 2011 I published an introduction to Creative Writing, THE ART OF WRITING FICTION, which is structured as twelve chapters with practical exercises conforming to the twelve week syllabus of my undergraduate Introduction to Creative Writing module at UEA.
I am principally a novelist with an increasing interest in issues in Creative Writing pedagogy.
I supervise Creative and Critical writing research students, principally though not exclusively the creative component of their PhDs.
Article
Cowan, Andrew, Kelly, Sam and Beard, Richard (2012) Whither the Workshop? Writing in Education, 55.
Cowan, Andrew (2011) Blind Spots: What Creative Writing Doesn't Know. TEXT, 15 (1).
Cowan, Andrew (2010) The Anxiety of Influence: Inside UEA’s Creative Writing MA. WordPlay: The Magazine of the English Subject Centre, 3 (April 2010). pp. 18-20.
Cowan, Andrew (2009) Losing My Voice. The International Literary Quarterly, 7 (May 2009).
Cowan, Andrew (2009) Walter Barley. Short Fiction, 3. pp. 12-31.
Cowan, Andrew (2007) Questions, questions: can the creative survive in proximity to the critical? Writing in Education, 41.
Book Section
Cowan, Andrew (2013) "This won't do": Pig and the temptation of silence. In: On Writing a First Novel. Palgrave Macmillan. (In Press)
Cowan, Andrew (2012) Losing My Voice. In: Body of Work: 40 Years of Creative Writing at UEA. Full Circle Editions, Woodbridge, pp. 101-105.
Book
Cowan, Andrew (2013) Worthless Men. Sceptre. (In Press)
Cowan, Andrew (2011) The Art of Writing Fiction. Pearson Longman. ISBN 1408248344
Cowan, Andrew (2005) What I Know. Sceptre, p. 278. ISBN 0340713062
Cowan, Andrew (2002) Pig. Sceptre, p. 256. ISBN 0340824123
Cowan, Andrew (2001) Crustaceans. Sceptre, p. 231. ISBN 0340713046
Cowan, Andrew (1997) Common Ground. Penguin, p. 256. ISBN 978-0140260724
External Activities and Indicators of Esteem
- 2012 - Institute of English Studies / OU Contemporary Cultures of Writing, London, ‘The Rise of Creative Writing’: invited speaker
- 2012 - Association of Writers and Writing Programs, annual conference, ‘Internationalizing the MFA’, Chicago, USA: invited speaker
- 2011 - Worlds Literary Festival, ‘Influence’, UEA / Norwich: invited participant
- 2010 - Australian Association of Writing Programs, ‘Strange Bedfellows or Perfect Partners: The role of literary studies in creative writing programs’, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia: keynote speaker
- 2010 - Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership, ‘Writing Across Cultures’, City University of Hong Kong / Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival : keynote speaker
- 2010 - English Subject Centre / Napier University, Edinburgh, ‘Beyond the Workshop’: keynote speaker
- 2010 - date Board, National Academy of Writing
- 2009 - New Writing Worlds Literary Festival, ‘The Creative Writer’, UEA / Writers’ Centre Norwich: invited speaker
- 2008 - British Council Walberberg seminar, Berlin: invited speaker
- 2008 - Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, ‘Re-thinking Practice: Creative Research in an Institutional Context’: keynote speaker
- 2007 - date Advisory Board, 'First Story' ('Writers into Schools' Project)
Professional Activities
- 2011 - AQA (Assessment & Qualifications Alliance) focus group: Creative Writing at ‘A’ level.
- 2011 - Steering committee, NonfictionNow conference, RMIT University, Melbourne
- 2010 - Judge, Inspire, Science Discovery Centre short story competition
- 2009-2012 - City University London, external examiner, MA in Creative Writing (Novels)
- 2009-10 - Liverpool John Moores University, external examiner, MA in Creative Writing
- 2009 - Judge, East Anglia Book Awards
- 2009 - University Campus Suffolk, panel member, BA (Hons) English revalidation event
- 2009 - University of Chichester, panel member, BA (Hons) English and Creative Writing reapproval event
- 2008 - University of Chichester, external advisor, BA (Hons) English and Creative Writing course review
- 2007, 2008, 2009 - Judge, The McKitterick First Novel Award (Society of Authors)
- 2007 - Corby Borough Council, Culture and Regeneration Vision Team
- 2006 - Judge, Glen Dimplex New Writers Award (Irish Writers' Centre)
- 2006 - Judge, 'Every Object Tells a Story' (Channel 4/Victoria and Albert Museum
- 2004 - Arvon/Jerwood Foundation Young Writers' Apprenticeship Scheme, Mentor
Administrative Posts/Responsibilities
- 2011 - present Director of Creative Writing
- 2011 – present Project Manager www.newwriting.net
- 2009 - present School Promotions Committee
- 2009 - 2012 Deputy Head of School
- 2007 - present Admissions Tutor, MA in Creative Writing (prose)
- 2007 - 2011 Course Director for MA in Creative Writing (prose)
- 2007 - present Member of PG Exam Board
- 2007 - 2009 School Teaching Committee
- 2004 - 2007 Course Director for BA Hons in English Literature with Creative Writing
- 2004 - 2007 Member of School of Literature and Creative Writing Exam Board
