A Year of Publications and Projects for Former Students

2012 has seen more success and publications for Creative Writing graduate Jake Campbell, including the publication of his first book.

Jake studied Creative Writing with English at Chester, and after graduating in 2009 went on to do our Creative Writing MA. Since then, Jake has achieved a great deal of success with his poetry.

In 2011 he was awarded the £1,000 Andrew Waterhouse Award for his poetry by New Writing North. He was also invited to take part in a professional development course for poets led by the writer Clare Pollard.

His writing has been published in a number of literary journals, and 2012 saw the publication of Jake’s first book, the poetry pamphlet Definitions of Distance (Red Squirrel Press). Jake is also one of the founders of a new poetry journal, Butcher’s Dog.

Jake has just embarked on an exciting new placement. Working with Changemakers, a national youth leadership charity, and New Writing North, Jake will be developing a new, youth-led creative writing project which seeks to document the opinions, concerns and frustrations of various young people in Tyneside and Northumberland. This is particularly relevant to Jake, whose writing has always been heavily influenced by a sense of place, and by his North Eastern roots. In a glowing review of Jake’s book on the National Association of Writers in Education website, Nathan Ouriach writes: ‘Jake Campbell tracks the geographic and psychic space that has surrounded him his entire life and seeks to articulate all of its endearing intricacies. Campbell candidly poeticizes his Northeast and suffuses the minor moments of life with acute thematic depth.’

Jake says: "The groundwork for all of these achievements was laid when I was studying at Chester. I learned invaluable skills for writing striking, contemporary prose and poetry; how the greats have done it, and how I might continue those traditions in the 21st century. I continued to hone my skills during my MA year, in which the support of my colleagues and tutors gave me the information I needed, as well as the enthusiasm, to begin writing seriously. In short, studying at Chester was a vital catalyst for my own work; one which I will carry with me well into the future."