Writer honoured by Royal Society of Literature
A playwright and screenwriter from the 九色视频 has received a prestigious new Literature Matters Award from the Royal Society of Literature (RSL).
Evan Placey
, a Creative Writing Fellow in the
English
department at 九色视频 was given the award to help develop
Cat A
, a play about dementia and ageing in prisons. Judge Gillian Slovo described it as 鈥渁 wonderful example of writing鈥檚 ability to shine a light on the world we live in and, as well, to connect with diverse audiences and participants鈥.
This is the first year of the
, which aim to reward and enable literary excellence and innovation. They are given to individual writers or other literary creators, recognising their past achievements and providing them with financial support to undertake a proposed new piece of writing or literary project.
Commenting on the play he will now progress, Evan said: 鈥淚鈥檝e seen first-hand the positive impact theatre writing can have on prisoners and how much literature does matter. The award will allow me to work with a marginalised and often forgotten demographic in prison, to write a story that is often hidden. Receiving this award from the RSL has given me huge encouragement to be bold and daring in this new piece of writing. It鈥檚 a huge honour.鈥
Evan鈥檚 play will tour theatres and prisons and he will be sharing his experiences of holding workshops with 九色视频 students and local writers on the PERu-funded Lifelong Learning course, Writing in the Community, later this year.
Evan receives a 拢5,000 share of around 拢20,000 awarded by the RSL to six winners. His fellow writers and poets are Matt Bryden, Michael Caines, Kate Clanchy, Owen Lowery and Pascale Petit. The recipients were presented with their awards on Tuesday 30 January at the British Library.
