Clare Gough who has been awarded The North Literary Agency Prize 2021

UofG Creative Writing Student has won The North Literary Agency Prize 2021, it has been announced.

Clare Gough, currently enrolled on the MLitt Creative Writing programme, was awarded £1000 and an offer of agency representation for her novel, A Good Submissive and Silent Christian Wife. This is the second year of The North Literary Agency partnership with Creative Writing at UofG. 

Clare Gough, a Metis Canadian freelance journalist based in Scotland and currently works as a news writer for National Geographic Magazine, said: "A Good Submissive Silent Christian Wife is the story of a young woman being choked in the grip of two power structures – an abusive marriage and the Pentecostal Christian church which condoned and created structures of coercive control.

"I am incredibly grateful and honored to be awarded The North Literary Agency Prize. As writers, we spend so much time inside our heads, so receiving outward validation of my work has been an enormous boost to my confidence and has made me even more excited to continue with my fiction."

Six UofG students in total were shortlisted this year: Maud Woolf (The Thirteen Suicides of Lulabelle Rock), Gavin Baird (Thin Places), Niamh Gordon (Ordinary Miracles), Eva Weworski (Joyless Eye), and Kris Haddow (When the Curlew Cries No More).

Spearheaded by Dr Carolyn Jess-Cooke, The North Literary Agency Prize at UofG was established in 2019. The prize is judged by agents at the 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.

Mark ‘Stan’ Stanton, literary agent and CEO of The North Literary Agency Prize, said: "The quality of submissions this year was impressive, demonstrating an extraordinary range of imaginative power and literary skill amongst the current students. The agents at the North Literary Agency were blown away by the six shortlisted works. Ultimately, we awarded the prize to Clare Gough’s novel, A Good Submissive and Silent Christian Wife, for its lyrical power and astonishing portrait of coercion and control."

Dr Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing by Distance Learning said: "Our partnership with the North Literary Agency continues to signal the talent of our cohorts and the success of our Creative Writing programmes. Stan’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."

 

 

First published: 4 June 2021

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