City Writes Final Call For Submissions

Calling all current students and alumni of City, University of London’s short creative writing courses, the deadline to submit to this term's City Writes is this Friday, 11th June. They’re looking for your best 1,000 words - fiction and narrative non fiction - to share the virtual stage with alumna, Alex Morrall, whose debut Helen and the Grandbees was published to great acclaim by Legend Press last year. Full submission details are here.

Helen and the Grandbees by Alex Morrall

This term's online event with Alex Morrall is on Wednesday 7th July at 7pm. You can register for your ticket here.

City Writes was founded by our very own Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone and is a termly event showcasing the best of City's short courses creative writing talent. Winners of the competition get to share the stage with authors like Kiare Ladner, Imogen Hermes Gowar, Katherine Menon, Harriet Tyce and Deepa Anappara.

Winners of this term's competition will be announced in week 9. Find out how to submit here. Register for the event here. We’ll be going and hope to see some of you there!

City Writes Spring 2021 Competition Open

City Writes, City University of London’s termly writing competition, is open for submissions.

Kiare Ladner’s debut Novel, Nightshift

Past and present City University London short course writing students: City Writes is back and looking for your fiction or non-fiction. Selected and hosted by the brilliant Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone, one of The Book Edit’s editors, this term's event will feature guest author Kiare Ladner whose debut novel, the devastatingly good Nightshift, is due out in February with Picador. To join her 'on stage', full competition details are here.

For anyone wanting to attend, it's free, online and lots of fun, just register here.

Deadline for submissions: Friday 5th March

City Writes Spring Event on Zoom: Thursday 1st April at 7pm

Good luck!

Winners of City Writes Competition to share stage with author Harriet Tyce

Ben O’Donnell Bourke

Delighted to hear the recent announcement of this term’s City Writes competition.

Ursula Hirschkorn, current student on The Novel Studio

Congratulations to Ursula Hirschkorn for her story 'Summer Time'; Jake Leyland for his non-fiction piece 'Portrait of a Technician in a War Zone'; Ben O'Donnell Bourke for his story 'Negative Habits'; Harriet Pavey for her story 'Dad' and Stephanie Pride for her story 'The best way to a man's mind is through his stomach'.  

City Writes is a termly event that showcases the best of City's Short Courses Creative Writing talent, hosting readings from alumni, students and tutors. Winners share the stage with a published alumni or tutor. This term it’s the turn of Harriet Tyce whose debut psychological thriller, Blood Orange, was published earlier this year to great acclaim.  

For your chance to hear Harriet read from her novel, alongside the five brilliant winners, tickets for the event are available here. 

And for anybody wanting to join City’s flagship Novel Studio programme, the deadline for applications is fast approaching. More details here, including information about their literary agent competition and the Novel Studio scholarship, set up by Harriet Tyce.

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Winners of City Writes Autumn 2018 Competition announced

Delighted to hear the winners of City Writes latest competition announced this week. Joining City tutor Cherry Potts and her Solstice Shorts team on Thursday 13th December will be Meera Betab, Angelita Bradney, Kate Henderson and Debz Hobbs-Wyatt. City Writes founder and judge, Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone, said the competition was ‘really strong’ this term. Having worked with both Meera and Kate, I can vouch for the strength of these winning writers!

City Writes was set up by Rebekah as a way to showcase the fantastic work being produced by both City writing short course alumni and tutors and provide an opportunity to read their work to an invited audience. Each term the winners get to share the stage with one of the published tutors for an evening of readings. This one promises to be suitably festive with musicians accompanying some of the writers’ work. Tickets are £10, which includes wine. Book here now for an alternative Christmas event.

Novel Studio applications and City Writes fiction competition closing soon

It's a busy week in the City short courses calendar. City's year-long flagship Novel Studio programme, the course that inspired Hannah Begbie, Harriet Tyce, Deepa Anappara and Kiare Ladner, to name but a few, at the start of their careers, closes for 2018 applications on June 15. For more information head over here. And to read about the growing list of published alumni visit.

And City Writes, City's termly writing competiton, open to all past and present City short course students, closes its doors for submissions on 15 June. For a chance to take to the stage and read alongside short course alumna and rising star, C.G. Menon, visit and for tickets visit.

Happy submitting!