Rathbones Folio Prize and UEA partner for new fellowship

The Rathbones Folio Prize and the University of East Anglia (UEA) have announced a new partnership that will see exceptional authors championed by the prize offered a £5,000 visiting fellowship by UEA.

The UEA/Rathbones Folio Creative Writing Fellowship will be a fixed-term position in the UEA's renowned School of Literature, Drama & Creative Writing. The first winner, Raymond Antrobus, will take up his position in the spring. However, in these exceptional times, Antrobus will deliver a programme of digital masterclasses, online panel discussions and tutorials for UEA students in May.

Antrobus said: "I am honoured and excited to begin my fellowship at UEA. I am hoping to inspire as well as be inspired by students and faculty members."

Valeria Luiselli, who on Monday was awarded the 2020 prize for Lost Children Archive, will be the second writer to be offered a fellowship.

The partnership will also include a special Rathbones Folio Sessions event series taking place in London and Norwich offering students at UEA and the public access to the insight and expertise of the Rathbones Folio-shortlisted authors. The event series will feature members from the distinguished Folio Academy.

As an extension of the partnership, UEA Creative Writing faculty member and writer Dr Jean McNeil now joins the Folio academy, alongside colleagues Professor Henry Sutton, director of creative criting, and professor of creative Writing Tessa McWatt.

Andrew Kidd, co-founder of the Rathbones Folio Prize, said: "As a literary award, we seek to identify the best work, across all forms and borders, of any given year. But we also recognise that this work doesn’t emerge from a vacuum, and the Rathbones Folio Mentorships are designed to find and nurture new voices, while the Rathbones Folio Sessions offer those voices a platform on which to flourish."

Dr Jean McNeil, Reader in Creative Writing at UEA, added: "In recent years, UEA’s extraordinary programme has welcomed writers from all over the world, including Sharlene Teo, Ay√≤b√°mi Adéb√°y√≤ and Deepa Anappara. In its inaugural year, we could not be more pleased to welcome Raymond Antrobus to this first Rathbones Folio Creative Writing Fellowship. As we prepare to mark 50 years of UEA’s pioneering creative writing MA, we are delighted to be working with the prize to continue making our programme the leading global choice for aspiring writers.”