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Annie Garthwaite turned to fiction after a 30-year international business career, fulfilling her lifelong ambition to write an account of Cecily Neville, matriarch of the House of York during the Wars of the Roses and mother of Edward IV and Richard III. Her obsession with Cecily and her family began in school and never left her. Setting off in the world of work, she promised herself that, at age 55, she would give up the day job and write. She did just that, completing her novel while studying for a creative writing MA at the University of Warwick. CECILY is her debut novel and, even before its publication, was named a 'top pick' by The Times and Sunday Times.

This book presents the innovative pedagogy of Writing Fantasy: a method for exploring and shifting one’s identity as a writer. The book draws on qualitative research with undergraduate creative writing students and fills a gap in the literature exploring creative writing pedagogy and creative writing exercises. Based on the potential to shift writer identity through creative writing exercises and the common ground that these share with the stance of the Lacanian analyst, the author provides a set of guidelines, exercises and case studies to trace writing fantasy, evidenced in one’s creative writing texts and responses about creative writing. This innovative work offers fresh insights for scholars of creativity, Lacan and psychosocial studies, and a valuable new resource for students and teachers of creative writing.

J.S. Loveard, one of the Literary Practice PhDs from the Warwick Writing Programme, has collaborated with Birmingham-based experimental vocal ensemble Via Nova on their recording project Where the Marsh Plants Grow. He contributes a text for a brand new piece “Rogation” which through the medieval holy festival of Rogationtide meditates on the past, boundaries, and violence. Through improvisation, the piece was devised by Via Nova with guidance by their musical director, Daniel Galbreath and J.S. Loveard. It sits proudly alongside works by contemporary composers Kerry Andrew, Emily Doolittle, Percy Pursglove, and Olly Chalk in an album that explores ‘the many ways through which we relate to the earth: through science and agriculture, through metaphor and memory, through our very bodies’.

 Where the Marsh Plants Grow was a recording project funded by Arts Council England, and as of Friday 15th May, is available for CD and download on the Focused Silence record label: https://www.focusedsilence.com/product/via-nova-where-the-marsh-plants-grow/

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Zeena Faulk, third-year PhD in Translation Studies student, has just had her translation of Mohammad Khudayyir's The Ancient Storyteller published in ArabLit's Spring issue The Road (pp. 66-79). Many congratulations, Zeena, and thanks for brightening our week with this news!