In 2020, Covid-19 hit the world with such ferocity, and at such a pace, that our social fabric changed beyond recognition virtually overnight. When the country ground to a halt in March 2020, we knew the people we traditionally work with would be among those hit hardest by the isolation of life, in a city,… continue reading »

Our team of UEL student writers has just spent the last six months working with community members at four new organisations: Ageing Well Dagenham, Cody Dock, Pepper Pot Day Centre and Stones End Day Centre, all of them committed to providing activities and higher life quality to community elders. This cycle of storytelling encounters took the form of 12 collaborative… continue reading »

The CityLife team have been doggedly working behind the scenes to secure more funding for the 2018 new academic year and onward, to take our work into new universities and their respective communities across the UK. Wish us luck, and watch this space for more announcements of partnerships, plans and dates.

The winner of the CityLife Prize for Fiction by Young Writers was announced at our yearly writing event, Write Now, on Thursday 18th May 2017. A huge congratulations to 17 year old Rebecca Hawkins of Brentwood School, who was handed her certificate and prize of £500 by our wonderful guest judge Salena Godden – a… continue reading »

Listen to Tessa & Stephen from the CityLife team, and Nicola, one of our student writers, being interviewed by the EastCast Radio Show about the CityLife Prize for Fiction by Young Writers (scroll down for more details on this). Click here to be taken to the EastCast website.

The prizewinner has now been decided by the panel, and we are announcing their name at our yearly writing event, Write Now, on Thursday 18th May 2017. Here is our event page, please join us! The winning piece can be found here, we hope you all enjoy it as much as we did.

We are thrilled to announce the ten shortlisted writers for the CityLife Prize for Fiction by Young Writers. Winner to be announced at Write Now, May 18th. Alexandra Overton, aged 18, with On The Theme Of A Walk Up Kings Road Bryony Streets, aged 17, with The Time of Day Charlotte Glyn-Woods, aged 17, with Her Flynn Ryan Hallman, aged 17,… continue reading »

We are pleased to confirm that our yearly event, Write Now, which celebrates UEL Creative Writing graduate work, will be held in UEL Stratford Square Campus on May 18th. There will be free refreshments and snacks, and we can’t wait to see everyone. Please book your FREE ticket via this link. This year, we will be… continue reading »

Industry publication The Bookseller has very kindly given us a space on their site to talk about the CityLife Prize for Fiction by Young Writers. Click here to read the full article!

We are thrilled to announce that celebrated author and performer Salena Godden, whose dazzling poetry and prose have been performed on the BBC, published in an array of influential anthologies, and most recently in the best-selling The Good Immigrant, has agreed to be our Guest Judge for the CityLife Prize for Fiction by Young Writers. A ground-breaking spoken-word… continue reading »

The CityLife team and the University of East London are extremely excited to announce the launch of a brand new literary prize, the CityLife Prize for Fiction by Young Writers. It is open to all London-based writers aged 16 to 19. The theme for this year’s competition is ‘The City’. We are looking for fiction that… continue reading »

On this jam-packed and wonderful evening, we not only launched EastLife with an introduction from the editors Tessa McWatt, Stephen Maddison and Sam Dodd, as well as extracts from Jo Lazar & Craig Britton, but we saw the launch of The Gallion too, a student-led creative writing anthology, and heard work from graduating students Raisa Hassan, Charlotte… continue reading »

Only a few days left till Write Now! Book your tickets here. Write Now is an annual showcase event sponsored by UEL’s School of Arts and Digital Industries. It showcases Creative Writing at UEL, bringing the talents of creative writing graduates, staff and special guests to the wider community. This year, we are also launching the publication… continue reading »

We are excited to announce that EastLife will be celebrated, along with UEL Creative Writing achievements by graduating students, on Thursday 25th May 2016 in Stratford Circus at 6.00pm. The event will be a celebration of Creative Writing & Civic Engagement at UEL. We have a feature slot from none other than Linton Kwesi Johnson, and… continue reading »

We’re very happy to say that we’ve now entered the next phase of our on-going civic engagement / creative writing project, which began life as EastLife, by kickstarting CityLife. We have four fantastic newly graduated writers working on the project with us: Nicola, Suzanne, Samuel & Jack. These students are interviewing parents and staff at Richard House, a… continue reading »

In March 2016 we visited Age UK in Bow, and Canning Town Library, to meet with all the community elders who took part in EastLife and present them with their books. Both occasions were incredibly rewarding, and we were able to read some of the pieces out. It was truly a pleasure to have worked… continue reading »

We’re thrilled to announce that the first EastLife print run is complete, and we have in our possession a hefty hoard of beautiful books ready for our launch event in May, where we’ll be graced by Linton Kwesi Johnson and limitless third year creative writing talent. Please join us! Scroll down to our last post… continue reading »

We are launching our website, and the project officially, on Thursday 12th November 2015 at UEL. To attend, please email eastlifestories@gmail.com

Once the writers who had been paired with elders from Canning Town Library had written their stories, we organised a day for us to all meet up, with the stories in hand, for the people we had worked with to read through and comment on. There had been a month, sometimes two, in between the… continue reading »