Emerging talent shines as University of Glasgow writer wins prestigious literary prize
Published: 3 December 2024
A dazzling new voice in fiction has emerged from the University of Glasgow’s Creative Writing programme, it was announced today
A dazzling new voice in fiction has emerged from the University of Glasgow’s Creative Writing programme, it was announced today.
Laura Thurlow, a Toronto-born writer, has won the coveted North Literary Agency Prize 2024 for her novel Triangle, earning £1000 and the chance to be represented by one of the UK’s leading literary agencies.
Thurlow, who also wrote and performed a one woman show, River Time! at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe which received critical acclaim, said: “I am so very grateful to the North Literary Agency and to the Creative Writing Programme at The University of Glasgow. I was inspired to pursue study at the University of Glasgow after I read an advance copy of Madeline Docherty’s Gender Theory, which won the prize in 2022. I hoped that Glasgow might be the place for me - and I'm so pleased to have been right.”
“In completing my MLitt, I spent a wonderful year experimenting with style, reading broadly and engaging with brilliant writers and lecturers. In particular I am grateful to have had Dr Carly Brown as my tutor, she has been instrumental in my development as a writer over this past year. I look forward to the future and towards the completion of my novel. I am honoured to have been considered and to have won, and I am inspired by the writers who were shortlisted alongside me whom I am sure have great things in the works.”
This is the 5th year that the North Literary Agency has teamed up with the University’s Creative Writing programme to spotlight rising literary stars.
Four students were shortlisted for The North Literary Agency Prize 2024, including David Gerow (The Plagiarist), Astrid Lea-Mutch, (Cy Said So), Cait Merrill (Blackwater), and Thurlow.
The judges were Mark Stanton, Lina Langlee, and Julie Fergusson, all agents at The North Literary Agency.
Spearheaded by Dr Carolyn Jess-Cooke, the North Literary Agency Prize at the University of Glasgow was established in 2019, in partnership with the North Literary Agency.
Dr Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Reader in Creative Writing said: “Our partnership with the North Literary Agency continues to signal the talent of our cohorts and the success of our Creative Writing programmes.
“The agency’s expertise and knowledge brings a level of prestige to this award that offers all the shortlistees a huge confidence boost, and a significant opportunity for the winner to develop their writing career. We are thrilled to be partnering with them again and look forward to more successes in the future.”
Lina Langlee and Julie Fergusson, literary agents at the North Literary Agency Prize, said: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with the University of Glasgow to award the North Literary Agency Prize 2024. The standard this year was once again remarkably strong, and whittling the entries down to this cross-genre shortlist was no easy task. Laura Thurlow’s Triangle, with its modern concept and sharp observation, clearly marks her as a talent to watch, and we are thrilled to announce her as this year’s winner.”
The North Literary Agency Prize
The North Literary Agency Prize is now in its 5th year. It is judged by agents at the North Literary Agency and is awarded annually to a student who is currently enrolled on the MLitt Creative Writing, the MLitt Creative Writing by Distance Learning, or the MFA/DFA programmes in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. Previous winners have already gone on to achieve literary successes. Madeline Docherty, who won the 2022 prize for Gender Theory, published her novel with John Murray Press in June 2024. MLitt graduate Frances Copeland was shortlisted in the 2022 prize, with her novel becoming the subject of a ten-way publishing auction. Transworld is publishing the novel in 2026.
About Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow’s Creative Writing postgraduate taught, and research-led writing courses are among the most challenging and popular in Britain. They have helped launch the career of a number of successful writers. Learn more here - https://www.gla.ac.uk/subjects/creativewriting/
About The North Literary Agency
The North was founded in October 2017 by a group of agents with decades of experience in the book world: not only as agents, but as booksellers and publishers – and even a writer. We are a small agency, but we think our list of best-sellers and award winners shows that we punch above our weight. In a business dominated by large London publishers and agencies, we’re proud to be one of very few literary agencies based in the north; though our reach is global, with writers published in more than 30 territories around the world.
Learn more here: https://thenorthlitagency.com/
First published: 3 December 2024