“New Voices in Fiction Out of East Anglia” 

A panel event with Karen Angelico, Sussie Anie, Rajasree Variyar and Eva Verde.

Who are the new voices of the region that we should be looking out for and what are they writing about?

Join us as we introduce four exciting new voices in fiction: Sussie Anie, Karen Angelico, Rajasree Variyar and Eva Verde.  Expect this panel event to involve discussion of what tools studying on University of East Anglia’s celebrated writing courses gave them and if and how East Anglia has influenced their writing or how they write. Each author will also introduce their novel,  talk about the experience of debuting as an author and share what might be on the horizon for their futures.

Sussie Anie is a British-Ghanaian writer, born in London in 1994. Her writing has been published in Lolwe magazine and was shortlisted for the 2020 White Review Short Story Prize. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the UEA, where she was the recipient of the 2018-19 Kowitz Scholarship. Her debut novel TO FILL A YELLOW HOUSE was longlisted for the 2023 Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award.

Anie’s touching debut delivers a heartfelt message about what can happen when strangers from different backgrounds connect. Washington Post

Karen Angelico was born in Coventry and grew up in the West Midlands. She now lives in Suffolk with her four sons and works as a marketing content writer. She has a degree in Literature & Art History and an MA in Creative Writing from UEA. EVERYTHING WE ARE is her first novel.

“This is a story about lack of communication, of secrets and lies and bottling things up. It’s urban, slick and wonderfully written with plenty of sex, drugs and glossy modern lifestyle detail. But at its centre is someone twisted and sad and Angelico’s great achievement is to create sympathy for him” Daily Mail

Rajasree Variyar grew up in Sydney, Australia and now lives in London, where she juggles writing while working in digital insurance product development. She holds a MA in Creative Writing from UEA. Her novel THE DAUGHTERS OF MADURAI was shortlisted for Hachette UK’s 2019 Mo Siewcharran prize. Her short stories have won second prize in the Shooter Literary Magazine short story competition and been longlisted for the Brick Lane Bookshop short story competition.

“Lying at the heart of this powerful and moving novel is the shocking practice of female infanticide. Once read it is not easily forgotten” Daily Mail

Eva Verde is a writer from East London. Identity, class and female rage are recurring themes throughout her work. Her debut novel LIVES LIKE MINE, is published by Simon and Schuster. Eva’s love song to libraries, I AM NOT YOUR TITUBA forms part of Kit De Waal’s COMMON PEOPLE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF WORKING-CLASS WRITERS. She has written for Marie Claire, Grazia, Elle and The Big Issue, and penned the new foreword for the international bestselling author Jackie Collins Goddess of Vengeance. Eva lives in Essex with her husband, children and dog. Her second novel IN BLOOM will be published in August 2023.

“Lives Like Mine explores the theme of a school-run affair and the complications and joys it brings to a dual-heritage mother struggling with her intolerant in-laws” Independent