Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your career/published works or work-in-progress, including your Masters project(s)? 

Well I am an African American woman who prides herself on being a Blerd, a black nerd. I grew up on Saturday morning cartoons and Judy Blume. I was reading the collected works of Shakespeare by the time I was 8. I wrote my first piece at the age of 10 and it was fanfiction for Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

How do you think being part of the Manchester Writing School community has helped your writing career?

It helped me find my strengths with my writing. I thought the what I was writing was the key, but through this programme I found out, the why was much more important. And when you get that right, the rest is just easy. 

What did you find was your most valuable experience as part of the Manchester Writing School? What were the highlights? 

For me it was the pub chats with my writing group. We really bonded and it helped me so much with my writing. They really helped me to feel comfortable with my writing voice and what I was writing.

What advice would you give to students looking at studying at the Manchester Writing School, or just starting out on the course? 

Develop your writing voice. This programme doesn’t teach you how to write, what to write or how to say it. What it does teach you is to find the why. Why are you writing, why are you writing this piece at this time. Why are you writing it in this way. Those are the questions you will be asked as you embark on this programme. They aren’t easy to answer and they aren’t easy to convey, but when you finish this degree those questions and their answers will become second nature.