St Mary’s Creative Writing Student to be Published in Anthology of Working Class Writers

A Creative Writing: First Novel MA student at St Mary’s University, Twickenham has been chosen to be published in an anthology bringing together new voices from working-class writers with other, more established names.

Adam Sharp will appear in Common People, which is edited by Kit de Waal, author of international bestseller My Name is Leon.

The anthology is to be published by crowdfunding publisher Unbound and features such well-known authors as Malorie Blackman, Louise Doughty and Alex Wheatle alongside Adam and the 16 other new writers selected.

Adam is represented in the book by a piece of memoir entitled ‘Play’, which uses a teenage battle with his father over what music to play in the car as a way into discussing his traumatic upbringing, with both his parents tackling drug addiction and the young Adam coming far down their list of priorities.

Adam said of the news, “Having one of my short pieces of memoir selected for the Common People anthology is the most exciting thing to have happened since I first began writing. The piece is taken from a different book to the one I’ve been doing for the MA, but being at St Mary’s has really helped my overall development as a writer.”

Programme Director of the Creative Writing MA at St Mary’s Jonathan Gibbs, said, “It’s wonderful to see recognition for one of our students in this way, especially considering the context of the book, which arose in response to the lack of working class voices in contemporary British fiction. Having followed Adam through his year writing a debut novel on our Creative Writing MA, I have high hopes that this book, too, will soon be in readers’ hands.”

Meanwhile, Creative Writing Senior Lecturer Christie Watson is celebrating the publication of her highly acclaimed The Language of Kindness with a reading and discussion at The Exchange in Twickenham on Tuesday 29^th May, with tickets still available.

Further details of Creative Writing MA: First Novel can be found online or by emailing jonathan.gibbs@stmarys.ac.uk.