News

Friday 18 May 2007

MA Graduate wins Best First Novel Award

Nicola Monaghan, a recent graduate of Nottingham Trent University's MA in Creative Writing, has won this year’s Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award.

Her critically acclaimed debut, 'The Killing Jar', a dark coming-of-age story about life on a Nottingham council estate, beat a shortlist that included the 2006 Orange New Writers winner Naomi Alderman and the overall Costa Book of the Year winner Stef Penney, amongst others.

Nicola Monaghan said: “I am thrilled to win another prize. I'm not being a gracious winner when I say it was an outstanding shortlist. I really feel all the books deserved a prize, so to come through that selection process and win was brilliant.”

The annual Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award is presented to the most promising debut novel written by a British author in the previous year. Previous winners include Alan Sillitoe’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.

'The Killing Jar' has already received a Betty Trask award. Nicola is currently working on her second novel, provisionally entitled Starfishin'.

Nottingham Trent University’s Creative Writing Programme Leader and one of her course tutor’s, David Belbin, said: “It was always obvious that Niki was going places. Her determination, unflinching subject matter and the energy of her writing were there from the start.” Nicola has contributed a story to this year's MA anthology, 3D/07, which will be published next month (June).

Ends