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 Bone, Amir Aziz, Jack Pascoe & Justin Tuijl. The evening was hosted by the inimitable Jacob Sam La Rose, and our guest speaker was Linton Kwesi Johnson. See some wonderful pictures of the event on our Gallery page – credit and huge thanks to Roy Wilson for kindly giving his talent and time to take these for us. Thanks to all who came – especially the EastLife Writer team and our community elders!

And a huge congratulations to Nicola Peard, Suzanne Wilson, Samuel Hardy, Jack Pascoe and Amir Aziz for coming up with the idea of selling the books donated to the Writing Centre by Pete Ayrton of Serpents Tail, to raise money for Richard House, the hospice we are working with in the second phase of the project which is now underway, CityLife. We’re very proud that they raised a whopping £170.27!! Amazing! Below, Shahina Haque of Richard House receives the (GINORMOUS) cheque.