Staff who contribute to the programme include:
Maura Dooley –Programme Co-ordinator for the MA
Maura’s most recent collection of poetry is ‘The Silvering’ (2016). Her versions of Iranian poet Azita Ghahreman in ‘Negative of a Group Photograph’ (2018) won a PEN Translation Award. She has edited anthologies, worked as a script consultant in film and theatre and been involved in numerous initiatives to enhance the profile of poetry in the United Kingdom.
Stephen Knight – poet, novelist
Stephen’s poetry publications include ‘Flowering Limbs’, ‘The Prince of Wails’ ‘The Sandfields Baudelaire’, ‘Dream City Cinema’, and, for children, ‘Sardines and Other Poems’. He has published the novel, ‘Mr Schnitzel’ in 2000, and an anthology, ‘I Am Twenty People’, edited with Mimi Khalvati. He has worked as a theatre director and his fiction and Poetry reviews regularly appear in The Times Literary Supplement. He won the National Poetry Competition and his work has received a Poetry Book Society recommendation.
Francis Spufford – novelist
Francis is a writer of creative non-fiction, essays and more recently, fiction. His novel ‘Golden Hill’ (2016) won the Ondaatje Prize. His anthology of literature about the poles is, ‘The Ends of the Earth’ (with Elizabeth Kolbert), and he is the author of ‘The Child That Books Built’, ‘The Backroom Boys’, ‘Unapologetic’ and ‘Red Plenty’.
Ardashir Vakil – novelist
Ardu’s first novel, ‘Beach Boy’, won a Betty Trask Award, was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and has been translated into 10 languages. His second novel, ‘One Day’, was shortlisted for the Encore Award. Ardu is currently working on a new novel and a collection of shorter fiction.
Blake Morrison
Blake has published a wide range of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. His memoir ‘And When Did You Last See Your Father?’ won the J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography. He has written a study of the murder of James Bulger, ‘As If’, as well as collections of poetry, most recently ‘Shingle Street’, novels which include ‘South of the River’ and many plays and adaptations.
Erica Wagner
Erica has published a novel ‘Seizure’, a collection of short stories ‘Gravity’, and ‘Ariel’s Gift’ a study of the writing of Ted Hughes’s ‘Birthday Letters’. ‘Chief Engineer’ a biography of the man who built the Brooklyn Bridge, is her most recent work (2017). For many years she was literary editor of The Times. She is a regular reviewer and interviewer for a variety of media.
Tom Lee
Tom’s short stories have been published widely and shortlisted for many awards, including the Sunday Times Short Story Award. ‘Greenfly’, his debut collection, was followed by his first novel, ‘The Alarming Palsy of James Orr’, (2017). He is currently working on a memoir.
Tutors include:
- Romesh Gunesekera
- Diana Evans
- Eva Salzman
- Clare Fisher
- Ross Raisin
Find out more about staff in the Department of English and Comparative Literature.