Centre for New Writing

Congratulations to former CNW student Nina Reljić, winner of The London Magazine Poetry Prize for her poem ‘Helen When Asked’.

Read more:

Nina Reljić wins The London Magazine Poetry Prize 2026 - The London Magazine The judges of The London Magazine Poetry Prize 2026 award first place to Nina Reljić for her poem 'Helen When Asked'.

Are you ready to get to know your local library? MCRCityofLit have announced the programme for this year’s , taking place across Greater Manchester. We’ve partnered with Linguistic Diversity Collective and Centre for New Writing to celebrate with a series of free workshops and events. All are free, but places are limited!

Book here: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/festival-of-libraries-2026-4833312?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=odclsxcollection&utm-source=cp&aff=odclsxcollection

Four weeks to go until the first of our Manchester Literature Festival events:

📅 Tuesday 26 May
⏰ 7pm
📍 Contact
🎟️ £15 / £13

We’re delighted to welcome Booker Prize-winning novelist Douglas Stuart, to discuss his profoundly moving new novel John of John, set on the Isle of Harris.

Tickets and info:

Douglas Stuart | Manchester Literature Festival We’re delighted to welcome back to Manchester Literature Festival Booker Prize-winning novelist Douglas Stuart, to discuss his profoundly moving new novel John of John, set on the Isle of Harris.

We're delighted to announce that Rozie Kelly, a former CNW Creative Writing MA student, is through to the shortlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction for her debut novel 'Kingfisher'!

The winner will be revealed on Thursday 11 June, and will receive £30,000, along with a statuette known as the ‘Bessie’, created and donated by the late artist Grizel Niven.

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Revealing the 2026 Women's Prize for Fiction Shortlist - Women's Prize While this year’s shortlist spans an incredible breadth of themes, geographies, time periods, and literary styles, the six shortlisted novels each interrogate the wealth of roles women play in society, the power they hold, and the extent to which they choose, or are able, to wield it. Other shared...

Jane Hirshfield in conversation with John McAuliffe

We are delighted to partner with Blackwell's Bookshop Manchester and Poetry Ireland to welcome Jane Hirshfield to Manchester to read from and discuss her collection 'The Asking'.

📅 Monday 27 April
⏰ 6.30-8pm
📍 International Anthony Burgess Foundation
🎟️ £4 (free with book purchase)

Jane Hirshfield is a visionary American writer whose poems ask nothing less than what it is to be human. Both sensual meditations and passionate investigations of our shared and borrowed lives, they reveal complex truths in language luminous and precise. In an era of algorithm, assertion and induced distraction, Jane Hirshfield's poems bring a much-needed awakening response, actively countering narrowness.

Tickets and info: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-asking-jane-hirshfield-in-conversation-tickets-1984710429321

Event announcement:
Exhibition launch and poetry reading by Lemn Sissay OBE

Join us for the launch event for 'From Page to Stage Exhibition: 20 Years of Manchester Literature Festival' on Monday 30 March, 4pm–5.30pm in the University of Manchester's Samuel Alexander Building (Glass Corridor).

This event is an opportunity to view the exhibition and to hear more about the University's partnership with Manchester Literature Festival, as official Higher Education Partner.

You will also be treated to a special poetry reading by Honorary Chair in Creative Writing at The University of Manchester, and award-winning poet, Lemn Sissay OBE.

Date: Monday 30 March, 4-5.30pm
Location: Samuel Alexander Building (South foyer)
Refreshments will be available on arrival.

Everyone is welcome, booking is recommended. Please register your free place here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/from-page-to-stage-20-years-of-manchester-literature-festival-tickets-1984783978308?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true

Centre for New Writing School of Arts, Languages and Cultures University of Manchester SALC Students

Congratulations to CNW PhD graduate Nell Osborne, who has been announced as joint winner of this year’s Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize for debut novel 'Ghost Driver'.

The judges said: "'Ghost Driver' is a shape-shifting gem powered by an effortlessly hip voice that crackles with restless energy. Its boundary-blurring blending of the personal with the political, and the uncanny with the mundane, is as beguiling and fresh as modern fiction gets."

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Republic of Consciousness We’re passionate about the small press community. That’s why we run this book club for interested readers, with books donated generously by the publishers themselves. While we rely on funding from our sponsors for the prize’s life and longevity, we are grateful for the additional support of ou...

Congratulations to Rozie Kelly, a former CNW Creative Writing MA student – Her debut novel 'Kingfisher' has been longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction!

Rozie said "It’s an extraordinary honour, one that will take a while to absorb as reality. The books that have previously been longlisted in this prize are an incredible array of talent and the judges are all women I admire greatly. I am absolutely, deliriously, delighted to be included."

Read more: https://womensprize.com/library/kingfisher/

Nell Osborne, a CNW PhD student who graduated in 2022, has been shortlisted for the 2026 Republic of Consciousness Small Press Fiction Prize for her first novel, 'Ghost Driver'.

Read more:

The Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize 2026 shortlist The five winning presses, titles and their authors are in...

Huge congratulations to CNW graduate and current Burgess Fellow Gurnaik Johal, who has been shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award for 'Saraswati' – a bold debut novel which follows the lives of seven individuals, as an ancient sacred river springs back to life in a rapidly changing contemporary India.

Gurnaik Johal - Young Writer of the Year Award Centuries ago, the myths say, the holy river Saraswati flowed through what is now Northern India. But when Satnam arrives in his ancestral village for his grandmother’s funeral, he is astonished to find water in the long-dry well behind her house. The discovery sets in motion a contentious scheme ...