Prestigious Queen\'s award for University of East Anglia\'s   The Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education has come at the perfect time as well, with the UEA celebrating the 40th anniversary of its creative writing masters course.
The course can count Booker Prize winners Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Anne Enright among its alumni after it was founded in 1970-71 by Sir Angus Wilson and Sir Malcolm Bradbury, the first of its kind in the country.
The programme has grown to encompass courses at undergraduate, postgraduate and research level, with MA strands in prose fiction, poetry, scriptwriting and lifewriting.
The news was announced at a reception in St James’s Palace in London yesterday
Malcolm Bradbury with students in 1983.Malcolm Bradbury with students in 1983.
UEA vice-chancellor Prof Edward Acton said: “I am absolutely delighted that UEA has come to be renowned nationally and internationally as a centre of excellence in this now thriving academic discipline. I believe we are still seen as a benchmark for others.”
The Queen’s Anniversary Prize medal and certificate will be presented by the Queen at Buckingham Palace next February.
The UEA’s director of creative writing, Andrew Cowan, added: “This is a tremendous accolade because it not only recognises UEA’s groundbreaking role in establishing creative writing as an academic discipline in the UK, and the unrivalled success of our alumni in achieving publication and major literary awards, (but) it also recognises the continuing excellence of what we do.
“This is a very exciting time in the development of our programme, with many initiatives under way, and this award is hugely encouraging as we continue to innovate and expand.”
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