Birkbeck serial writing competition winner announced
During April, Birkbeck took part in the London wide Cityread festival...
During April, Birkbeck took part in the London-wide Cityread festival – a month long programme of events aiming to get Londoners reading. This year the festival centred on Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist.
Dickens wrote most of his novels in monthly or weekly instalments which were published in newspapers and in his own publications like ‘Household Words’ and ‘All the Year Round’, and as part of the festival, Birkbeck held a writing competition, asking entrants to write a piece in this style.
We are pleased to announce that the winner is Mariam Hayat. Birkbeck Creative Writing Lecturer, Julia Bell, who judged the competition said of Mariam’s entry: “It was funny, smartly written and it was contained within a scene – showing an innate facility for the kind of writing that we so admire in Dickens. Full of life and character – but in the moment, rather than described after the event.”
Mariam said: “The one thing I’ve really loved about Dickens' work is the way he mixes the mundane feelings and actions of an everyday existence with acts of high drama and passion and this is something I wanted to explore in my own piece of writing.
“I am thankful to Birkbeck for giving me this opportunity to practice writing like Dickens and I hope that there are many inspiring Cityread events like this in the future.”
>> Read Mariam’s winning entry
>> Find out about Birkbeck creative writing courses.