[ad_1]
A lecturer, novelist and short story writer from the University of Chichester has been nominated for a major literary award for his latest book.
Contemporary fiction professor Alison MacLeod was shortlisted for the prestigious Edge Hill Short Story Award for All the Beloved Ghosts (Bloomsbury), a collection of stories the Sunday Times called “emotionally powerful” and “impeccably elegant.”
It has also been described by Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald as “a short and graceful fictional sequel, each piece touches the heart of what it means to be alive.”
Professor MacLeod is one of five shortlisted candidates for this year’s award, the only major honor that recognizes excellence in single-author short film collections in the UK and Ireland.
She said: “I am delighted and honored. Short story is one of the most demanding and exhilarating forms of literature, and it is wonderful to see it recognized each year with the Edge Hill Award.
“Congratulations also to Edge Hill University for their inspired support for short fiction films in this country. Like the University of Chichester, Edge Hill has been at the forefront of a vibrant news culture in the UK and beyond.
Professor MacLeod, once nominated for the Man Booker Prize for her latest novel Unexploded, is one of the founders of the BA (Hons), MA and PhD Creative Writing courses at the University of Chichester, now widely regarded as top programs. UK for Creative Writing.
The courses are the basis of the new South Coast Creative Writing Hub, which sits at the heart of a vibrant literary scene spanning the south of England and is comprised of internationally renowned authors including Professor MacLeod. The Hub is also home to Thresholds: a global digital platform for news writers and students. A news masterclass between Professor MacLeod and acclaimed first writer and doctoral student at Chichester, Zoe Gilbert, is available on her website at thresholds.chi.ac.uk.
The Edge Hill Award nomination continues a few successful months for Professor MacLeod and All the Beloved Ghosts, who was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award of International Fame at the end of 2017. Most recently, she won a major award from funding from the Arts Council of England for Thresholds, a site she created in 2010 for the university.
Her story ‘We Are Methodists’ was shortlisted for the 2018 Best British Short Stories anthology, released this month with Salt Publishing.
Additionally, her latest story, The Gleaning, set on a boat trip to a wind farm off Sussex, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and was one of Radio’s “picks of the week”. 4. The 15 minute show is available at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b7hq2z.
Speaking of the award nominations, Professor MacLeod said, “As a writer you put everything into your work. Being nominated for international awards – knowing that people from afar read and imaginatively “enter” the worlds you create – is a gift for a writer.
On Saturday, September 8, Professor MacLeod will give a talk entitled Making Time: Writers, Time and Literary Creation. The conference is part of an Italian public conference, The Mystery of Time, at the Pari Center in Pari, Tuscany, Italy. Everyone is welcome.
[ad_2]