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4thWrite Prize 2021: Inigo Laguda, Hopscotch

Inigo was born in Bedford, raised in Stevenage and currently resides in North London. He graduated in Writing and English literature from Anglia Ruskin University. His poem, Beautiful Tasting Words was a winner in the ‘Edith Sitwell’ Challenge on The Young Poet’s Network. His essays have been published in The Metro, Netflix: Bigger Picture, Wear Your Voice Magazine, Racebaitr and Black Youth Project. Follow him at @saveinigo on Twitter and Instagram.  HopscotchUnstuck in time, A Black boy raised in a homogeneously white commuter-town hurtles between libidinal incidents that have shaped him.  Read More

4thWrite Prize 2021: Laura Blake, Home is Not Here

Laura Blake – Home Is Not Here  Laura is a writer and editor based in Birmingham. She is mixed race, with two Jamaican grandfathers and two English grandmothers, which always makes for an interesting conversation about identity. She has an MA in Literary Studies from Aberystwyth University. In 2020, she was a finalist in the George Floyd short story competition and shortlisted for the Leicester Writes competition. Follow her at @LauraJBlake on Twitter. Home Is Not Here  When she was seven years old, Birdie Brown left Jamaica with her parents to begin a new life in England. Now, at the age of seventy, she faces being deported back to a country she barely remembers. Read More

4thWrite Prize 2021: Gift Nyoni, The Ritual Seat of the King

Gift was designed in Britain and assembled in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. During his first eight years in the UK he lived underground as an undocumented asylum-seeker, seeking refuge in libraries and trying to write, something he aspires to do well. He now lives out in the open in London, and is working on his first novel. He’s interested in identity, trauma, memory, and notions of home. The Ritual Seat of the King  The Rhodesian civil war ends and hope abounds in the new Zimbabwe, but when David’s father returns to the family home it soon becomes apparent that the more things change, the more they stay the same, and the young boy’s fascination soon turns into revulsion.  Read More

4thWrite Prize 2021: Amaan Hyder, Postpositions

Amaan is the author of the poetry collection At Hajj (Penned in the Margins, 2017). His poems have appeared in various publications including The Guardian, Poetry Review and Poetry London. He is a Ledbury Poetry Critic 2021 and a doctoral student at Royal Holloway, University of London. Follow him at @hyder_amaan on Twitter.PostpositionsPostpositions comprises thirty reflections by an unnamed narrator concerning inheritance, queerness and late nineties-early noughties television.  Read More

4thWrite Prize 2021: Sulaxana Hippisley, Cadaver

Sulaxana is an English teacher, writer and single mother. Runner up in the 2019 Bridport Short Story prize, she has been long listed for the 2020 BBC Short Story Award, the Bristol Short Story prize, the 2019 ‘Spread the Word’ Life Writing prize and  the Asian Writer short story competition. She was mentored by Courttia Newland for the 2017 Almasi League and is currently working on her first novel.    CadaverOn the eve of a dinner party, a young woman encounters the aftermath of the Sri Lankan civil  war. Read More

4thWrite Prize 2021: Nicola Sheppey, Pontianak

Nicola works in architecture in London, having lived between Malaysia and the UK. Her creative non-fiction has been published in Epoch Press. She writes both short fiction and full-length novels, and recently graduated from Faber Academy’s Writing a Novel course. A Malaysian setting inspires her work, and she is drawn to magic realism and mythology in her writing. Follow her at @NicolaSheppey on Twitter and Instagram. Pontianak A young woman is placed in postpartum confinement and feels a malevolent presence threatening to invade.  Read More

Eleanor Wasserberg introduces The Light at the End of the Day

If I invite you over for dinner with my family, be warned, it tends to go like this: we have wine, and then we start talking about the Holocaust. Read More

Sarah Aspinall introduces Diamonds at the Lost and Found

For readers of Hideous Kinky, Dadland and Bad Blood; the astonishing, beguiling story of Sarah Aspinall’s harum scarum childhood, and a love letter to a woman who defied convention to live a life less ordinary. Read More

Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore

An introduction I have been asked to write a few words about the origins of my debut novel, Valentine. This should be a simple enough task, and one that every writer who is fortunate enough to sell her book should be prepared to complete in a timely fashion. Read More

Kirstin Innes introduces Scabby Queen

The 30th April would have been publication day for Kirstin Innes fantastic new novel Scabby Queen before the pandemic caused the release date to be delayed. To mark the occasion, Kirstin shared some of the inspiration behind the novel on Twitter, answered readers’ questions, and gave us a sneak peak with a couple of readings from the book. Read More

Mr Atkinson’s Rum Contract

The story of a tangled inheritance I began writing Mr Atkinson’s Rum Contract almost ten years ago, after learning that I couldn’t have children. Instead of looking forward to the family I’d always imagined I’d have, I turned round to face the past; it was time I found out about those who’d come before me. Read More

The Mirror & the Light: Cultural Impact

The Power of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies In 2009, Hilary Mantel was an author already acclaimed for her fiction and memoir-writing, having been awarded, among other prizes, the MIND Book of the Year and the Cheltenham Prize, as well as being shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction. But the arrival of Wolf Hall would transform Mantel into a household name. Read More