2007 Awardee: Jenni Fagan

I cannot wait to begin my BA in Norwich and I am really excited about the work I plan to do there.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 29
ARTFORMS: , , ,
 
 
 

Biography

Jenni has been writing creatively since she was in primary school where she won competitions for short stories and poems. Since then, her writing achievements are impressive and to date include winning a national competition in 2004 to represent Scotland at the European Young Playwrights Forum in Athens and in 2006 reaching the final six in a national competition organised by the Playwrights Studio Scotland which entitles her to be mentored by the Studio.

Jenni not only shows incredible talent and promise as a writer, she has a unique voice and poetic originality.

Jenni has built up a substantial body of work already; one book of poetry, an autobiographical novel, three plays, two film scripts, many short stories and countless outlines for future work.

She has been published in Brand Literary Magazine, Flux, Dope USA, Underground Poetix Instanbul, Tate Modern, Graffiti Kalkota India, Dwang Anthology, Beat Anthology and Unthology amongst others.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will support Jenni through a degree in creative writing at Norwich School of Art & Design, and later at Greenwich University.

Since the Award

In 2010 Jenni graduated with a first-class degree. In the same year her novel The Panopticon was completed and her art installation The Scold’s Bridle, a collaboration wth the words of women in prison, was exhibited at Greenwich Gallery.

Her first collection of poetry Urchin Belle, published by Blackheath Books, was a sell-out and her second collection The Dead Queen of Bohemia is published in 2010.

While an undergraduate, Jenni facilitated a writers’ group at Norfolk Blind Association. She begins her first Writer’s Residency at Lewisham Hospital in late 2010. Jenni has accepted a place on the MA course at Royal Holloway, taught by Andrew Motion, starting in the autumn of 2010.

In 2013, Jenni’s novel The Panopticon was nominated for a for the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction. Click here for further details.

Jenni took part in our Tenth Anniversary Celebrations, where she led a Meet the Artist session with fellow Awardee Jonathan Boyd.

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I cannot wait to begin my BA in Norwich and I am really excited about the work I plan to do there.

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2007 Awardee: Laura Helyer

I was thrilled to hear that I have been offered an award.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 25
ARTFORMS: , ,
 
 
 

Biography

Suffolk-born Laura Helyer’s long-term ambition is to become a published writer of poetry and literary fiction. She recently completed an M.Litt in Creative Writing (poetry) with distinction from St Andrews and is now working towards a PhD.

Laura moved to Dumfries in Galloway in 2005. Whilst there, her poem sequence ‘Camera Obscura’ was the joint winner of the Kirkpatrick Dobie prize. Following this success, Laura was invited to participate in a poetry scheme which involved being mentored to produce a collection of poems for a public reading and being paired with an established poet to perform her poems. Laura read with the well-known poet Adrian Mitchell, who was greatly impressed with her work.

Other achievements include in 2006 being runner-up in the prestigious Cardiff International Poetry Competition with her poem ‘The Heron’ and in 2005 having her short story ‘Green Angel’ commended in The Eildon Tree magazine writing competition and subsequently published in their anthology. More recently in 2007, Laura won first place in the Kirkpatrick Dobie Poetry Prize and second place in the Muriel Carmichael Prize (for prose essay).

Laura is considered to have the potential to become an important voice in British poetry as her work becomes more widely published. Already she has shown to have unusual talent combined with intelligence and an ability to write with a language of precision and rare sensitivity.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award is providing financial support while Laura works on a series of poems and on a novel.

Since the Award

Laura writes, “[A] Dewar Award has enabled creative time, space and opportunities for which I have been extremely grateful.” Laura has sent her first collection of poetry, including a sequence of poems about the artists Joan Eardley, to a publisher. She lives in Dumfries & Galloway where she is an active member of the writing community.

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I was thrilled to hear that I have been offered an award.

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