New memoirs coming from MA Creative Writing graduates Catherine Simpson & Ali Millar

We're delighted that two graduates of the MA Creative Writing programme at Edinburgh Napier University are publishing memoirs this year - One Body by Catherine Simpson (from Saraband Books in April), and The Last Days by Ali Millar (Ebury Press, July).

One Body is described as 'the candid and often darkly funny story of how Catherine navigates her cancer treatment and takes stock of the emotions and reflections it provokes, until she is in remission. She comes to appreciate the skin she is in – to be grateful for her body and all that it does and is.'

It is Catherine's second volume of memoir, following on from the acclaimed When I Had a Little Sister was published by 4th Estate in 2019 to great acclaim. She received a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award not long after graduating from the MA, and her debut novel Truestory was published in 2015. She has been published in numerous anthologies and magazines, and been broadcast on BBC Radio.

The Last Days by Ali Millar is described as 'a tale of love and darkness, of faith and absolution ... one woman's courageous journey to freedom from the Jehovah's Witnesses. It is one of the Scotsman's 2022 books to watch.

Since graduating Ali has worked in Edinburgh and London,as a producer and broadcast journalist. The Last Days will be her first published book, exploring a childhood growing up in the shadow of religion. It asks the question, can you escape from the life into which you were born?