Meet the Writers
Six leading writers have been spending the last few months thinking about the future of writing and developing ideas for experimental literary works for you to explore and enjoy. Their practices encompass poetry to playwrighting, from historical novels about Georgian London to young contemporary fiction about football and child labour. Their stories range from the local to the truly global – transporting readers to Malaysia, to Nigeria, to Indonesia.
Find out how our writers have been developing their thoughts about the future of writing and developing new works that explore new forms of writing, reading, co-creation and interaction.
![Ayòbámi Adébáyò]()
Ayòbámi Adébáyò
Ayòbámi is a graduate of UEA’s MA in Creative Writing and the author of the acclaimed novel Stay With Me (Canongate, 2017), shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Wellcome Book Prize and described as a ‘stunning’ debut novel by the New York Times.
![Mona Arshi]()
Mona Arshi
Mona Arshi worked as a human rights lawyer at Liberty before she started writing poetry. Her debut collection Small Hands won the Forward Prize for best first collection in 2015. Mona’s second collection Dear Big Gods was published in 2019 by Liverpool University Press. Her debut novel will be published in 2021.
![Tash Aw]()
Tash Aw
Tash is the author of three novels – The Harmony Silk Factory (2005), which won the Whitbread First Novel Award; Map of the Invisible World (2009) and Five Star Billionaire (2013) – and a work of non-fiction, The Face: Strangers on a Pier (2016), finalist for the LA Times Book Prize.
![Imogen Hermes Gowar]()
Imogen Hermes Gowar
Imogen Hermes Gowar’s debut historical novel, The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and Deborah Rogers Foundation Writer Award, among others, and won the Betty Trask Award.
![Mitch Johnson]()
Mitch Johnson
After graduating from the University of East Anglia with an award-winning first class degree in English Literature with Creative Writing, Mitch completed Kick, his debut novel for middle grade readers which won the the Branford Boase Award.
![James McDermott]()
James McDermott
Recent UEA Scriptwriting MA graduate, James McDermott has built a reputation as one of the most exciting and innovative performer/writers for stage and screen in the region and nationally.
