Our people

Find out more about the people that make up the Centre for New Writing.

All classes and workshops are led by our teaching staff, a team of award-winning writers who, between them, have written or edited roughly three dozen critically-acclaimed books of fiction, poetry or non-fiction. In addition, they have written screenplays, the libretto for a children's opera, an award-winning hypertext website and theatre adaptations.

Professor of New Writing

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  Jeanette Winterson

  Jeanette Winterson is the Professor of New Writing at the Centre for New Writing. She wrote her first novel, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, when she was 23 and since then has published more than a dozen books.

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Director

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  Kaye Mitchell

  Dr Kaye Mitchell is a Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Literature, and the Director of the Centre. Her interests are in modern and contemporary literature, literary theory, gender and sexuality studies, and experimental writing by women.

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Co-Director

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  H. Gareth Gavin

  Gareth Gavin is a Co-Director of the Centre for New Writing. Gareth's experimental novel Midland / A Novel Out of Time was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2015.

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Lecturers

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  Jason Allen Paisant

  Jason Allen-Paisant is a Senior Lecturer in Critical Theory and Creative Writing. He is the author of Théâtre dialectique postcolonial (Classiques Garnier), and of Engagements with Aimé Césaire (Oxford University Press, 2023), and of two volumes of poetry — Thinking with Trees and Self-Portrait as Othello, both published by Carcanet Press.

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  Luke Brown

  Luke Brown is the author of the novels My Biggest Lie (2014), and Theft (2020), and has had short fiction published in the White Review, Mal, London Magazine and The Fence.

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  Horatio Clare

  Horatio Clare is an author and journalist. He has published a dozen books for children and adults, ranging from memoir and travel to short stories and novellas.

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  Vona Groarke

  Vona Groarke is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing. She joined the Creative Writing team in 2007 after graduating from Trinity College, Dublin and previously worked in the United States and Norway.

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  Jonathan Hourigan

  Jonathan Hourigan is a screenwriter, script consultant and educator. He joined the Centre for New Writing in September 2022 as Programme Director for MA Screenwriting.

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  Frances Leviston

  Frances Leviston is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing. She has published two collections of poetry and has been shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the International Dylan Thomas Prize, and the BBC National Short Story Award.

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  John McAuliffe

  John McAuliffe is Reader in Modern Literature and Creative Writing, and also the Co-Director of the Centre for New Writing. His main interests are in poetry, creative writing, contemporary literature and Irish Studies. 

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  Ian McGuire

  Professor of American Literature and Creative Writing and former Co-Director of the Centre.

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  Chloë Moss

  Chloë Moss is an accomplished playwright and screenwriter. She has written extensively for theatre and television, while she is currently working on a teen drama for CBBC.

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  Carmen Nasr

  In 2017, Carmen Nasr was a winner of the Channel 4 Playwrights’ Scheme, on which she was attached to the Finborough Theatre, where her play DUBAILAND previously premiered.

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  Tim Price

  Tim Price joined the Centre for New Writing in 2015 to teach on our new Screenwriting MA. He is a screenwriter and playwright, with television credits on some of the largest, longest running series including Eastenders, Holby City, Casualty and Doctors.

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  Michael Schmidt

  Professor Michael Schmidt OBE FRSL is a poet, literary historian, translator and editor. 

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  Beth Underdown

  ‘Beth Underdown is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing. She is the author of two historical novels: The Witchfinder’s Sister (2017) and The Key in the Lock (2022).

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Associated teaching staff

Fulbright Scholar

Honorary staff

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  Geoff Ryman

  Dr Geoff Ryman is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing. He has won 15 awards for his books and stories. Geoff also helped lead the UK government onto the web, starting a web design team at the Central Office of Information in 1994.

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