She was awarded the prize for Adventures in Synthetic Fun, an essay exploring the concept of ‘synthetic fun’ coined in the 1960s by Jeremy Sandford, and the changing nature of fun in an era of increasing automation, disputed oppression, widespread affective labour, illusory meritocracy, costly social mobility, divisive politics, and a degraded imagination.

Katy studied on the BA English Literature and Creative Writing and the MA in Writing in the department.

The Complete University Guide rankings were published yesterday, and the department continues its strong performance in national and international league tables. For Creative Writing, the department's Warwick Writing Programme is ranked at number 1 in the UK. For English, we are 9th, and for Theatre Studies (categorised as Drama, Dance and Cinematics), 5th.

Other Warwick departments with joint degrees with English have also performed strongly: Film and Television Studies (categorised as Drame, Dance and Cinematics) and German and Philosophy are each ranked as 5th, and French, Hispanic Studies (categorised as Iberian Languages) and Italian are each at 7th.

The University is ranked at 8th nationally and is the highest rated university in the West Midlands.

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.

A new prize has been established at Warwick to recognise writing by women in translation.