TRUESTORY by MA Creative Writing graduate launches with masses of media coverage

Catherine Simpson signing Truestory

Hearty congratulations are overdue for Catherine Simpson, whose debut novel Truestory had a standing room only launch last month. The book started life as Catherine's major project when she was a student on our Creative Writing MA programme at Edinburgh Napier University, and we couldn't be prouder of her achievement with this novel.

Catherine and the publishing team at Sandstone have done an amazing job generating media coverage for the paperback, with related pieces in the Daily Telegraph, the Glasgow Herald and numerous other places [e.g. here, here and here]. Having just graced the Portobello Book Festival, she's talking at the Dundee Literary Festival later this month - 5.30pm on Friday Oct. 23rd, to be precise.

The official launch event at Waterstones in central Edinburgh was one of the best attended in years, according to staff at the central city bookstore. The numbers were swollen by Catherine's friends and family who came from far and wide for the launch.

Standing room only at the Truestory launch in Edinburgh

But it was also gratifying to see more than a few students past and present from the Creative Writing MA along to support the new book. Since graduating from the programme Catherine has kept building on what she learned with us. Her work has been shortlisted in prestigious competitions, and she has performed several times at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

The success of Truestory is proof that talent, strategy and graft do reap rewards, if not always as fast as most writers would like. Catherine's book is the second major project from the MA programme at Edinburgh Napier to be published, following on from Wasp by Ian Garbutt earlier this year. We look forward to seeing more of our graduates achieve this breakthrough!