Congratulations to Sarah Moss, shortlisted for Wellcome Book Prize, for her novel The Tidal Zone. The prize "celebrates exceptional works of fiction and non-fiction that engage with the topics of health and medicine and the many ways they touch our lives."

Sarah Moss is a professor, teaching on the Warwick Writing Programme.

Congratulations to Will Eaves on being shortlisted for this year's Ted Hughes Award for New Poetry, for his book The Inevitable Gift Shop (CB Editions). The book is described as, "An intriguing, complex and revealing mixture of prose and poetry, The Inevitable Gift Shop is a ‘memoir by other means’, lassoing consciousness, memory, desire, literature, illness, flora and fauna, and problems with tortoises and cable ties." The judges comment: “This accomplished collection is an original compilation of different kinds of writing and thinking. It is clever, witty and philosophical, a subtle long playing book which unfolds with every reading.”

The Inevitable Gift Shop was a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. Will Eaves is an Associate Professor, teaching on the Warwick Writing Programme.

The 2017 QS World University Rankings have been published, and our department has climbed to joint 16th in the world, and 5th in Europe. You can read the University's press release here.

Dr David Taylor is curating 'Draw New Mischief’: 250 years of Shakespeare and Political Cartoons in a new exhibition hosted by the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon running 25 February – 15 October 2017. For details of the press release see here. David writes,

"I'm thrilled to be working with the Royal Shakespeare Company on this exhibition. It's been an exciting journey bringing this collection of cartoons together and we're also commissioning new work for current cartoonists that will be added to the exhibition over the course of its run.

“My research into political cartoons is driven by two overarching insights; first, that political cartoons cry out for close literary analysis and, second, that texts by Shakespeare and others shape the way we understand contemporary politics in profound ways that we're often unaware of. When I embarked on this project a number of years ago I felt strongly that the questions it was raising could be effectively presented through an exhibition and the RSC have proved to be the perfect partners in making this happen."

David will be discussing the exhibition on BBC Radio's Free Thinking today!

Our Royal Literary Fund Fellow, Catherine O'Flynn, and Sarah Moss, were both guests on the Saturday Review, BBC Radio 4, Saturday 28 January. Items discussed included Death Takes A Holiday (on at the Charing Cross Theatre now), and The Nix by Nathan Hill.