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.

Rita Dashwood, a PhD student in the department working with Dr David Taylor and Dr Tina Lupton, has won this year's President's Prize for best postgraduate paper at the annual conference of the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies.

Creative Writing alumna Sohini Basak is the winner of the 2016 Beverly Series for her debut collection of poetry, We Live in the Newness of Small Differences.

Sohini originally from Barrackpore, India studied at Warwick on the MA in Writing in 2013 and was taught by various Warwick academics including Professor David Morley, winner of the Ted Hughes Award for New Poetry. On hearing of Sohini’s success, David said:

‘The key to making poems is surprise in language. I remember with pleasure Sohini Basak’s poetry when I was teaching her poetry at Warwick. Her use of language, line and image always surprised and delighted.

It is no surprise therefore that she has gone on to achieve great things with her poetry. The winning of this prestigious prize and the publication of her first collection is an inspiration to student-poets at Warwick.’

You can access the full press release here, and the Warwick Writing Programme site also.

Please see here for details of an exciting new initiative - a partnership between The Sunday Times, Peters Fraser + Dunlop, and The University of Warwick to give real and substantive support to young writing talent in Britain and Ireland.

Alumna, Rebecca Tamas, has won this year's Manchester Writing Competition, with her poems 'Julian of Norwich'; 'Theresa of Ãvila'; 'Hildegard of Bingen'; 'Simone Weil'; and 'Marguerite Porete'. Rebecca studied English and Creative Writing, including the module Practice of Poetry. She is published by Salt Publishing. The University press release celebrating Rebecca is here.

Dr. Chantal Wright, Associate Professor in translation studies, will be part of a festive evening celebrating the IBBY UK Honour List Books 2016 at the London Piccadilly branch of Waterstones on December 8th. The event begins at 6.30pm. It is free to attend, but to register please go to eventbrite.com/e/ibby-uk-honour-list-books-2016-tickets-28958633051.

We have been named the national 'centre for excellence' in the field of Creative Writing, according to the latest Sunday Times Good University Guide published last week.