Stunning new books and literary zines coming from MA Creative Writing graduates in 2019

We couldn't be prouder to welcome news of two stunning books from graduates of the Creative Writing MA at Edinburgh Napier University, both coming your way in 2019!

February sees the launch of When I Had a Little Sister, a memoir by Catherine Simpson. She started work on an early version of this compelling narrative while studying on the MA programme.

Publisher Fourth Estate describes the book as "a searingly honest and heartbreaking account of growing up in a farming family, and of Catherine's search for understanding into what led a younger sister to kill herself at 46. It's a story of sisters and sacrifice, grief and reclamation, and of the need to speak the unspeakable."

When I Had a Little Sister is already attracting amazing blurbs from noted authors. Janice Galloway writes that "this book’s secret weapon - alongside the strength and power of its story - is the remarkable voice that fires from the page to the heart with no hesitation at all. Just Wonderful."

James Robertson saus "Catherine Simpson’s memoir of her sister Tricia’s suicide mixes the coolness of her journalistic training with the subjective pain of loss in dreadful circumstances. But something else is on these pages: frustration and anger – with Tricia, with herself and with other relatives – that if only the family tradition of silence and the suppression of feelings had been challenged earlier things might have been different. In analysing the inherited values and habits of a lifetime, Simpson breaks the silence and liberates herself."

June sees the launch of This House of Wounds, the first collection by MA graduate Georgina Bruce. Published by Undertow, it features incredible cover art by Catrin Welz-Stein.

Since graduating Georgina's powerful and often perturbing narratives have been published in numerous titles, including Interzone, Black Static and many other notable fiction journals. Georgina's story White Rabbit won the 2017 British Fantasy Award for short fiction - a stunning achievement. Now Undertow is gathering a hand-picked selection of these memorable narratives.

Last Halloween we celebrated the launch of Blood Bath Literary Zine. Created and edited by another MA graduate, Katy Lennon, Blood Bath is dedicated to exposing Scottish fiction’s weird horror underbelly, publishing horror/genre poetry, short stories and illustrations.

The first issue was devoted to BODIES, and featured work by Kristy Falconer - a currnet student on our MA programme - alongside that of one of our award-winning graduates, Ever Dundas. Blood Bath is now accepting submissions on the theme of DEMONS for its second issue - deadline if February 14th, 2019. Click here to find out more about this disturbing new literary zine!