Here is a whistle stop tour of a busy month in the life of MA in Creative Writing Progamme Leader, Brad Gyori (pen name Bradford Gyori), November 2024.

1^st Nov. my copy of the latest page turner, Waking Up in Vegas, by our award winning and highly prolific MACWP alum JE Rowney arrives. I post about it in the MA in Creative Writing and Publishing Facebook Group.

2^nd Nov. I’m thrilled to receive a copy of 21st Century Ghost Story Volume III featuring my story, “Docking the Blue Impossible.” Update my author’s site Bradfordgyori.com.

4^th Nov. Attend graduation day and cheer on MACWP’s Sue Edser as she takes a victory lap after receiving the Vice-Chancellor’s Award from our new VC Alison Honour. I nominated Sue for her outstanding work on the degree participating in various outreach initiatives like Allies in Action and being published by the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize after her short story Jigsaw Pieces won top honours.

4^th-8^th Nov. A flurry of activity as we finalise the release of Di(Still) the 2024 Bournemouth Writing Prize Anthology on Kindle Direct Publishing. This lovely edition was designed and edited by our students Sue Edser, Emily Kennedy, Anna Worley and Gideon Raphael. To celebrate its release we gathered for a catered launch event on Talbot campus with students, alum and undergrads that includes readings from the winners and an open mic.

1^st-30th Nov. Organise and host 4 of our weekly online Heard Word writing workshops with Featured Writers including Gary Krishna from The Outsiders Project who leads writing workshops in prison.

11^th Nov. Meet with Sharon Muirui Coyne of the writing collective Vita Nova to discuss how our MACWP students can produce “outreach anthologies” based on the bold, inventive, and transformative work of their participants.

12^th Nov. I speak to our digital tech tutor Daniella Mela about creating the very blog you are reading now (meta much?). It will feature categories like outreach, events, news, staff, alums, and an area called “bookshelf” with examples of work published by MACWP students and alum.

5^th Nov – Meet with MACWP student volunteering to help judge the Bournemouth Writing Prize for 2025. We discuss how the first phase of the vetting process works then I share spreadsheets and access to entries.

15^th Nov. Grab a bite with Dominic Wong of The Bournemouth Writing Festival and my fellow Advisory Board members, John Foster and Kim West. When we’re not feeding our faces we feed back on the line up of presenters for the 2025 Fest in April.

17^th Nov. I lead the “Improvising Voices” Writing workshop at the all new Blandford Literary Festival, tossing around creative ideas, funny accents and beach balls (and no, “Blandford” is not my boring alter ego).

18^th Nov.  Meet with Jo Billingham of The Outsiders Project to discuss how our MACWP students can produce and outreach anthology of their work. These writers take stories from the margins and place them front and centre, working with people in recovery, in the prison system and those who are grappling with mental health issues.

19^th Nov. Speak with Women’s Prize long-listed author, Yvonne Battle-Felton. She agrees to be our guest speaker for our last session of my unit Writing Fiction. She will be talking about her haunting new novel, Curdle Creek, which our students have been encouraged to read over the holiday break.

27^th Nov. Participate in online open mic writing forum In Your Own Words hosted by ICE, The Cambridge Institute of Continued Education.

28^th Nov – Have coffee with MACWP alum and BU PhD student Abbey Woolgar to recruit her as our new Blog Editor. She gives me an early Christmas present: 4 self-published books, The Spin Cycle Squad, Just Another Mum, Fred’s First Comic Book, and Abi, Squirrel and the Whole Heap of Trouble.

28^th Nov – Attend a networking event hosted by The Bournemouth Writing Festival in in The Old School House Boscombe, where I met a load of local writers and recruit new writers for Heard Word.

30^th Nov – Have coffee with recent MACWP grad Sue Edser to discuss her plans to pursue a PhD at BU and to recruit her to work as the Fiction Editor for The Bournemouth Journal. Sue is also spearheading the creation of the new MACWP alumni group. We make plans to grab a bite and a drink with 15 MACWP alums in January.