Writers in Residence
As part of our Unbound programme, Open Book began a writer’s residency to help fill our newsletter with ideas, stories and thoughts to explore and enjoy together in our online groups and on our own.
JESSICA WIDNER
Jessica Widner was our Open Book Unbound Writer in Residence from January – September 2022. You can access our archive of Jessica’s stories by clicking on the link below.
About Jessica
Jessica Widner is a writer and academic. She is a current doctoral candidate in English Literature, at the University of Edinburgh, working on a thesis that explores reading as an embodied, sensual process in contemporary women’s fiction. Her short fiction is forthcoming in Extra Teeth, and has also appeared in Gutter Magazine, The Cardiff Review, and Spartan Lit. Her debut novel, Interiors, is forthcoming with The 87 Press. She lives in Edinburgh.
Heather Parry
Heather Parry was our Open Book Unbound Writer in Residence from June – December 2021. You can access our archive of Heather’s stories by clicking on the link below.
About Heather
Alice Ash
Alice Ash was our Open Book Unbound Writer in Residence from December 2020 – May 2021, supported by the Bank of Scotland Foundation. You can access our archive of Alice’s stories by clicking on the link below.
About Alice
Alice is a new writer from Brighton. Her debut collection, Paradise Block, is forthcoming from Serpent’s Tail in Spring 2021. In 2019, Alice was longlisted for the Galley Beggar Short Story Prize, commended for The Berlin Writing Prize, and her manuscript was longlisted for the SFWP Literary Award, judged by Carmen Maria Machado. Other writing has been featured in Extra Teeth, Hotel, 3:AM, the TLS, Mslexia, and Popshot Quarterly, amongst others.
You can find Alice on Twitter & Instagram @aliceash_ or learn more at her website aliceash.com.
Jan Carson - Writer in Lockdown
Our inaugural Writer in Residence (we called her our Writer in Lockdown) was Jan Carson. For twenty weeks she kept our morale up with her wonderful Letters from Lockdown and Postcard Stories (copies available here https://theemmapress.com/).
We’re happy to share all of Jan’s Writer in Lockdown stories here – just click on the links below to access the archive and enjoy her weekly letters and stories, with their accompanying illustrations.
About Jan Carson
Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in East Belfast.
Her debut novel Malcolm Orange Disappears and short story collection, Children’s Children, were published by Liberties Press, Dublin. A micro-fiction collection, Postcard Stories was published by the Emma Press in 2017. Jan’s novel The Fire Starters was published by Doubleday in April 2019 and subsequently won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019. She has been shortlisted for the Sean O’Faolain Short Story Prize and in 2016 won the Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Prize.
