Contributing Writers of the StrathWrites Anthology.
On Friday 18th September, our Creative Writing teaching team welcomed an audience of colleagues, students and the public to the Ramshorn theatre for a special gala afternoon to mark the launch of a new anthology, StrathWrites, co-edited by Chancellor’s Fellow / Lythe Senior Lecturer in Creative Practice Dr Liam Bell and PGR student Ameek Gilhotra.
StrathWrites collects writing developed over a sequence of workshops held between 2025-26 with university staff from all job families and roles across the campus. The project was part of the Wellcome Trust funded programme of activities to foster a collaborative research culture. Featuring readings, a zine fair and taster workshop sessions on a range of topics, Dr Maria Sledmere spoke about the gala as ...
‘a chance to showcase Strathclyde’s literary talent to a wider audience, foster creative conversations about our research practice and underline the importance of the arts and humanities across campus’.
The event also included the opportunity to mark the launch of the new MFA Creative Writing and a chance to celebrate the announcement that the Sunday Times has ranked the University of Strathclyde number one for the subject across the UK. The programme director of both the MFA and the MLitt Creative Writing, Dr Jessica Widner remarked:
‘Seeing our creative writing community – students, colleagues, and alumni – come together like this was a reminder that it is the people that make our programmes what they are. While writing can be a solitary activity, this event showed us how strong our community is.'
An afternoon of readings from both anthology contributors, alumni and current PGT students was rounded off in style by Forward-prize shortlisted poet Michael Mullen, who read a specially commissioned performance piece titled ‘Shifting’, written in response to the staff anthology.
Dr Bell said: “Having Michael along to read his own work provided the perfect culmination to what has been a really positive project that allowed colleagues from all across the institution to find a creative community in their everyday. It’s also been a wonderful way to start the semester and welcome a new cohort of students into the exciting creative writing pathways here at Strathclyde”.
Andrew Pettigrew, Tayfun Zaidi, Michael Mullen and Jade Mitchell.
Harshil Gupta (not pictured)
