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Birkbeck’s creative writers launch new anthology of short stories

MIR13 includes novel extracts from two critically acclaimed Birkbeck alumni who each have new books published this year

The 13th issue of The Mechanics’ Institute Review (MIR) – the annual anthology of short stories written, selected and edited by students of Birkbeck’s creative writing courses – was launched on Tuesday 27 September, at a celebration event in the School of Arts’ Keynes Library.

MIR13 includes novel extracts from two critically acclaimed Birkbeck alumni who each have new books published this year, Elizabeth Fremantle (The Girl in the Glass Tower) and Nadim Safdar (Akram’s War), as well as exciting flash fiction from Kit de Waal, founder of Birkbeck’s Kit de Waal creative writing scholarship and author of My Name is Leon (2016).

The introduction to this year’s collection was written by author and Birkbeck creative writing lecturer Toby Litt, who explores what it means to really meet a writer through their work. The characters readers will encounter in MIR13 include a disillusioned DJ, a teenage arsonist, a young bride in Cairo, and a patriotic Muscovite. Through them, readers will meet an exciting selection of new writers for what may be the first time, but is unlikely to be the last. To date, a significant number of the approximately 250 students featured in MIR have found agents and landed contracts as a direct result of their inclusion in the anthology.

Speaking about his involvement in this year’s MIR, Jamie West, one of the editors, said: “It makes you want to be a better writer when you see so much talent around you. You get a good sense of what you like and what you don’t like and it doesn’t mean that they are objectively good or bad, but you get an idea of what your taste is. I’m still at an early stage as a writer so I really enjoyed that process of understanding myself better.”

MIR13 is available in print format from Amazon, local independent bookshops, all branches of Waterstones and all bookstore portals, and in e-book format on Amazon.

Watch a video about MIR13

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