About The Centre for New and International Writing

Detail of the School of the Arts' Miriam Allott room celing
Close-up of the ceiling of The School of the Arts' Miriam Allott room

The Centre for New and International Writing is the University of Liverpool's focal point for the study of contemporary and international literatures, for creative writing, and new writing in its many manifestations.


Shaping Contemporary Literary Studies

All staff whose work is allied to the centre teach in the Department of English and offer supervision at doctoral level in either literature or creative writing; all have extensive teaching and supervisory experience. Our creative writers are leading practitioners, but they are also critics who play an important role in writing about contemporary writing in scholarly monographs and journals as well as in literary magazines and newspapers; members of the Department have also judged significant national and international literary prizes including the Man Booker Prize, the Costa prize and the T.S. Eliot prize.

Supervision in Creative Writing is currently offered by Professor Deryn Rees-Jones, Professor Sandeep Parmar and Dr Will Slocombe. The primary research interests of our full-time members of staff are in poetry but staff within the Department of English are also available to share expertise as supervisors, and to offer further consultation and academic support.

Members of the Centre for New and International Writing are developing dynamic interdisciplinary research projects with departments and centres across the School of the Arts and School of Histories, Languages & Cultures, including the Literature and Science HubEnglishModern Languages and Cultures, the Olaf Stapledon Centre for Speculative Futures, History, and the Centre for the Study of International Slavery. In collaboration with the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, the Centre seeks to investigate the complexities of translation studies through a series of public poetry readings. In the past, visiting poets have included Forrest Gander and Oscar Martin Centeno.

Between 2016-2021 the Centre collaborated with Professor Nandini Das on her five-year European Research Council funded project TIDE, which aims to investigate how mobility in the great age of travel and discovery shaped English perceptions of human identity based on cultural identification and difference. More information about the collaboration can be found here

The Centre’s Dr Lucienne Loh works closely with the Department of History and the Centre for the Study of International Slavery to explore issues of immigration, diaspora, and enslavement through contemporary literature. Each year, Dr Loh organises a workshop led by an acclaimed contemporary writer for the University’s staff and students. Past writers include Caryl Phillips, David Marriott, Thomas Glave, Fred D’Aguiar and Sarah Howe.

Beyond the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Centre for New and International Writing also has strong links with the Literature and Science Hub, which collaborates with the Department of Geography and Planning, the Department of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences, and the Stephenson Institute to stimulate research, teaching and public debate about the relationships between those two traditionally opposed spheres of knowledge: the arts and the sciences. Dr Sam Solnick and Dr Will Slocombe from the Centre for New and International Writing are also involved in developing an exciting new collaboration between the Literature and Science Hub and the Centre for Health, Medical and Environmental Humanities.


Honorary Visiting Professors

Our Honorary Visiting Professors Neil Gaiman, Pat Mills and Mona Arshi further reflect the range and scope of our interests and specialisms, and Professor Catherine Cole of the University of Wollongong is an Honorary Supervisor for our PhD candidates.

Honorary Visiting Professor Pat Mills‌                
‌Pat Mills: Honorary Visiting Professor and comics writer      

Portrait of author Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman: Honorary Visiting Professor and author

 Mona Arshi: award-winning poet, writer and human rights lawyer


External Collaborators

Collaborating external partners have included: