‘Ten Things I’ve Learnt About Love’ is the debut novel by UEA alumna Sarah Butler and is published this week by Picador.  Sarah (pictured) graduated from the UEA Creative Writing MA in 2003 and has previously published her short fiction in journals, anthologies and online, including Pulp.Net, Tales of the Decongested, Litro, Sheffield Hallam’s ‘Matter 12’, Picador’s ‘Book of 40’, and Tindal Street’s ‘Roads Ahead’. She runs UrbanWords, a consultancy that develops literature projects engaging with regeneration and urban renewal, and has recently held residencies at Great Ormond Street hospital, and the London Underground Central Line, which resulted in the publication ‘Central line Stories’, produced in collaboration with London Underground staff.  ‘Ten Things I’ve Learnt About Love’ will be published in twelve languages around the world. 

‘Calon: A Journey to the Heart of Welsh Rugby’ is the latest title by UEA alumnus Owen Sheers and documents his year as Writer in Residence for the Welsh Rugby Union.  It is published by Faber and Faber this week.  Owen graduated from the MA in Creative Writing (Poetry) in 1998 and published his first collection of poetry, ‘The Blue Book’, in 2000.  His first work of non-fiction, ‘The Dust Diaries’, was the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year in 2005, while his second collection of poetry, ‘Skirrid Hill’, won the 2006 Somerset Maugham Award.  He is the author of three other books, including the novel ‘Resistance’ (2007), and numerous titles for radio, stage and screen, including ‘The Two Worlds of Charlie F’, which was funded by the British Legion and was the subject of a BBC 1 ‘Imagine’ documentary.  It won the Edinburgh Festival Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award in 2012.

A quarter of the nominees for this year’s £30,000 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story are graduates of the UEA Creative Writing MA.  Chosen from over 500 entries, the longlist includes stories by Toby Litt, Adam Foulds, Mark McNay and CD Rose.  Toby Litt, who graduated from the MA in 1995, is selected for ‘Call it “The Bug” Because I Have No Time to Think of a Better Title’.  He is the author of nine novels and two collections of stories and was also longlisted for the award last year.  Adam Foulds, who graduated in 2000, is nominated for ‘Tunnelling’.  His first novel, ‘The Truth About These Strange Times’ (2007) won the Betty Trask Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award.  ‘The Broken Word’ (2008) was the winner of the Costa Poetry Award, the Jerwood Aldeburgh Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award, while  ‘The Quickening Maze’ (2009) won the Encore Award, the European Union Literature Prize and the South Bank Show Literature Prize.  Mark McNay (pictured) graduated in 2004 and is nominated for ‘Ten Years Too Late’.  His first novel ‘Fresh’ (2007) won the Arts Foundation Prize for New Fiction and was shortlisted for three other literary awards, while ‘Under Control’ (2008) was shortlisted for the Aye Write! Bank of Scotland Prize for Scottish Fiction.  CD Rose graduated in 2007 is shortlisted for ‘Arkady Who Couldn't See And Artem Who Couldn't Hear’.  He has published numerous short stories since graduation, most recently ‘A Publisher Surveys the Changing Literary Scene’ in the collection ‘Unthology 3’, and is currently working on a PhD in the short story at Edge Hill University.  Also nominated are Ali Smith, currently a visiting professor at UEA, and Graham Swift, who was appointed as a Distinguished Writing Fellow at UEA in 2008.  The shortlist for the award will be announced on 24 February, and the winner at The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival on 22 March.

Debut novels by two UEA writers are among the eleven titles voted the ‘debut literary stars of 2013’ by Waterstones booksellers. BBC National Short Story Award winner DW (Dave) Wilson's first novel ‘Ballistics’ is included along with ‘Idiopathy’ by Sam Byers. Dave (pictured) graduated from the UEA Creative Writing MA (Prose Fiction) in 2010 and is currently completing his PhD at UEA, as is Sam, who graduated from the MA in 2003. ‘Idiopathy’ will be published by Fourth Estate on 25 April 25, while ‘Ballistics’ will be published by Bloomsbury on 1 August. Dave’s debut collection of short stories, ‘Once You Break A Knuckle’, was published last year and was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the British Columbia Book Prize and longlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.

‘Dear World & Everyone In It’ is a new poetry anthology representing the work of over sixty young poets currently writing in the UK. It is edited by Nathan Hamilton, who previously curated a series of young poet features for The Rialto, and is published by Bloodaxe this month with a launch event at The Poetry Library at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 24 January. Nathan (pictured) graduated from UEA’s English and American Literature BA in 2004, and completed the Creative Writing MA (Poetry) in 2005. He is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at UEA under the supervision of Jeremy Noel-Tod. He runs Egg Box Publishing and is chairman of the board of Inpress, representing over forty independent publishers. His poetry and criticism have appeared in The Guardian, The Spectator, The Rialto, Five Dials, The Manhattan Review and The Wolf, among others, and he co-edits the ‘antholog-zine’ series for emerging poetry, ‘Stop Sharpening Your Knives’. ‘Dear World & Everyone In It’ includes new work by poets as diverse as Ben Borek, Tim Cockburn, Amy De'Ath, Jim Goar, Meiron Jordan, Katharine Kilalea, Luke Kennard, Agnes Lehoczky, Sandeep Parmar, Sam Riviere, Angus Sinclair, Emily Toder, Jack Underwood and Tom Warner, among many others.

Current UEA student Sam Byers is profiled today in the Daily Telegraph as one of ‘five young novelists for 2013’, in anticipation of the publication of his first novel, ‘Idiopathy’. Sam completed his MA in Creative Writing at UEA in 2003 and is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing under the supervision of Giles Foden. ‘Some Other Katherine’, an extract from the novel, was included in the most recent issue of Granta magazine, whose theme was ‘Britain’. ‘Idiopathy’ will be published by Fourth Estate in April.

The Booker-shortlisted novelist Ali Smith has joined the UEA Creative Writing programme this semester as a UNESCO City of Literature visiting professor. She will be working with Creative Writing and Translation students, offering individual tutorials and seminars, as well as hosting a literary event in the city in association with the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT) and Writers' Centre Norwich (WCN). Norwich recently became England’s first UNESCO City of Literature, joining Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City, Dublin and Reykjavik, and it is intended that this permanent designation will be marked by the annual appointment by UEA of two visiting professors of international reputuation. The playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker was the inaugural professor in the Autumn 2012 semester. Ali Smith (pictured) was shortlisted for both the Orange Prize and the Man Booker Prize for her 2001 novel ‘Hotel World’ and for her 2004 novel ‘The Accidental’, which went on to win the 2005 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award. Her most recent publication is 'Artful', a partly fictionalised meditation on art and literature. Her appointment marks the continuation of an association with UEA that began with her appointment as a Writing Fellow in 1999.

To mark the 80th anniversary of Malcolm Bradbury's birth, Picador are reissuing six of his novels with new introductions by David Lodge, Margaret Drabble, Ian McEwan, Giles Foden and John Boyne. In 1970 Malcolm co-founded (with Angus Wilson) the UEA Creative Writing programme, the first such course in the UK, and taught on the MA until his retirement in 1995. A prolific and influential scholar and author, he wrote over 40 books of non-fiction and criticism, as well as numerous screenplays for television, and seven novels, including 'The History Man', which was serialised for BBC television, and 'Rates of Exchange', which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He was awarded a CBE in 1991 for services to literature, and knighted in 2000. A celebration of his achievements was held at UEA in November, with readings and reminiscences from David Lodge, Margaret Drabble, Giles Foden, John Boyne and Chris Bigsby. The YouTube recording of the event can be found on YouTube.

‘Chamber Music’ is the second Henry Bane crime thriller by UEA alumnus Tom Benn and is published by Jonathan Cape this week. Tom (pictured) was born in 1987 and grew up in Stockport. He graduated from the UEA undergraduate programme in 2009, and was that year’s recipient of the Malcolm Bradbury bursary to undertake the Creative Writing MA, which he completed in 2010. His first novel, ‘The Doll Princess’, was published in 2012, and was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, and shortlisted for the Portico Prize. Tom will be reading from ‘Chamber Music’ at the UEA Drama Studio on Thursday 7th February.

Current UEA creative writing student Julia Stuart has secured a two-book deal with Russian publisher Azbooka-Atticus for her two most recent novels. Julia (pictured) is currently completing her MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) at UEA. She is the author of three novels. Her first, ‘The Matchmaker of Périgord’, was published in the UK in 2007, and was longlisted for Spread the Word: Books to Talk About 2008, a World Book Day award. It has been adapted for film by Andrew Birkin who wrote and directed The Cement Garden, based on the novel by Ian McEwan. In 2010 her second novel, ‘Balthazar Jones and the Tower of London Zoo’, was published in the UK. In America it was published as ‘The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise’ and became a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, and an NRP Best Book of the Year. It was picked for the Obamas’ holiday reading, which became an international news story. Her most recent novel, ‘The Pigeon Pie Mystery’, was published in America in 2012, and was selected as a Book of the Week, as well as an ‘Unputdownable Mystery’, by Oprah.com. It will also be published in France, Italy, Taiwan, Portugal and Russia. Julia’s website can be found here: www.juliastuart.com