Prose Masterclasses 2011

Richard Beard

Richard Beard is Director of the National Academy of Writing.  He has an MA in Creative Writing from UEA, and has published four novels and three books of non-fiction.

'One of the most ingenious, resourceful and entertaining novelists in England'  Philip Hensher

‘Unusually intelligent, funny and readable’  Sunday Times

www.richardbeard.info

NAW Patron-led Discussions

Ian Marchant

Ian Marchant has published two novels and two travel memoirs, with a third, 'Something of the Night', due for publication by Simon and Schuster in 2011. In addition, he's published short stories, drama, radio plays, journalism and an illustrated guide to underground London for slightly odd children. He's also an occasional presenter for Radio Four.

'a big, fat affirmation of life, and Lord knows, we can all do with one of them from time to time'... Nicholas Lezard, Guardian.

'Drunkenly funny, obsessively factual, soberingly poignant.' - Simon Armitage.

www.ianmarchant.com

Jennie Rooney

Jennie Rooney has written two novels, Inside the Whale, which was published by Chatto & Windus in 2008 and was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, the Waterstones New Writer of the Year Award, and was a Richard and Judy Debut Book Club choice. Her second novel, The Opposite of Falling, was published by Chatto & Windus in 2010.

NAW Patron Visits 2011

NAW Patrons scheduled to visit the 2011 course:

Minette Walters

Minette Walters is the author of thirteen novels.  She is a previous winner of the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey, and the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best crime novel published in America. Five of her novels have been adapted for television, with a sixth currently in development.

www.minettewalters.co.uk

David Almond

David Almond won the Carnegie medal and the Whitbread children's prize with his first children's book Skellig. He has published fourteen books, and in 2010 he was awarded the Hans Christian Anderson medal.

www.davidalmond.com

Elizabeth Buchan

Elizabeth Buchan is the author of eleven novels and a biography.  She reviews for the Sunday Times and has chaired the Betty Trask and Desmond Elliot literary prizes, and has also been a judge for the Whitbread (now Costa) awards.

www.elizabethbuchan.com

Kapka Kassabova 

Kapka Kassabova is the author of Street Without a Name, a travel memoir of communist and post-communist Bulgaria. Her poetry books are Someone else's life and Geography for the Lost, and she occasionally writes for the Guardian, the Sunday Times, and Vogue. Her forthcoming book of non-fiction Twelve Minutes of Love is a quest for the Argentine tango.

www.kapka-kassabova.com

Terence Blacker

Terence Blacker is a writer who writes: novels for adults and children, biography, columns (for The Independent and The Author magazine) and even books for other people (notably The Young Ones) as a ghost.  He has written other material under at least seven pseudonyms.

www.terenceblacker.com

Iain Banks

Iain Banks is the author of twenty-three novels and one short fiction collection. His Science Fiction is published under the name Iain M Banks, and he was included in the 2008 Times list of the fifty greatest postwar writers. 

www.iain-banks.net