Our online tutored courses are designed and delivered by award-winning tutors and industry experts. All are published writers, and many have studied or taught at the University of East Anglia.
Meet the tutors who are here to guide, support and encourage you to produce your best work.
Benjamin Johncock
Benjamin Johncock is an award-winning novelist, short story writer and journalist. His debut novel, The Last Pilot, was published in the U.S. and U.K. to widespread critical acclaim. It won the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, was shortlisted for the East Anglian Book of the Year, selected for Brave New Reads, and was one of The Observer’s Hidden Gems of 2016. His award-winning short stories have been published by The Fiction Desk, The Junket, Comma Press and Storgy. His journalism has appeared in the Guardian, The Spectator, and many others, and he has worked as an editor and copywriter. He’s on the editorial board of The Letters Page, a literary journal edited by Jon McGregor at the University of Nottingham, and for two years was a mentor for the National Centre for Writing’s Escalator writing programme. He is also a recipient of two Arts Council England grants. He lives in Norwich with his wife, his daughter, and his son.
Benjamin teaches our beginners’ fiction course.
Read Benjamin’s top tips for submitting your writing to publications and competitions →
Rebecca Goss
Rebecca Goss is a poet, tutor and mentor, living in Suffolk. She studied English Literature at Liverpool John Moores University, then went on to complete an MA in Creative Writing at Cardiff University. Her poems have appeared in many literary journals, anthologies and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Arts online. Her second collection Her Birth was shortlisted for the 2013 Forward Prize for Best Collection and won the Poetry category in the East Anglian Book Awards in 2013. In 2014 she was selected for The Poetry Book Society’s Next Generation Poets. Her third full-length collection, Girl, was published with Carcanet/Northern House in 2019 and was shortlisted in the East Anglian Book Awards 2019. Her fourth full-length collection, Latch, will be published by Carcanet in 2023.
Rebecca teaches our beginners’ poetry course.
Read Rebecca’s advice for finding inspiration and staying motivated when writing poetry →
Edward Parnell
Edward Parnell has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. He’s been the recipient of an Escalator Award from the National Centre for Writing, and has taught Creative Non-Fiction with us since 2020. His second book, Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country, a work of narrative non-fiction was published in hardback in the UK during October 2019 by William Collins, and subsequently released in the UK and US in paperback in October 2020. The book was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley Prize 2020 for memoir and autobiography.
Edward teaches our beginners’ creative non-fiction course.
Read about Edward’s experience writing his mixed-genre book Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country →
Molly Naylor
Molly Naylor is an award-winning writer and performer. She is the co-creator and writer of Sky One comedy After Hours. Her plays have been toured nationally and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Her third poetry collection Whatever You’ve Got is published by Bad Betty Press. She wrote and performed the acclaimed solo spoken-word shows Stop Trying To Be Fantastic, Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You and My Robot Heart. Her first graphic novel Lights, Planets, People! won the Broken Frontier award for best graphic novel. Her first feature film is in development.
Molly teaches our beginners’ scriptwriting course.
Listen to Molly discussing the process of developing a script and her experience teaching this course →
Nicola Upson
Nicola Upson is the author of four previous Josephine Tey mysteries, including An Expert in Murder, and two works of nonfiction. She has worked in theater and as a freelance journalist. NCW first worked with Nicola when she was awarded a mentorship on the Escalator Talent Development Scheme.
Nicola teaches our intermediate crime fiction course.
Explore Nicola’s technique for plotting a crime novel and how her process has adjusted over time →
Lucy Hughes-Hallett
Lucy Hughes-Hallett is the author of the historical novel Peculiar Ground – described by the Guardian’s reviewer as ‘almost Tolstoyan in its sly wit and descriptive brilliance’. It was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize.
She is also known for her historical non-fiction. The Pike, her book about Gabriele D’Annunzio, won the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize and the Costa Biography Award. The Sunday Times has called it ‘the biography of the decade’. Her other non-fiction books are the acclaimed cultural histories Heroes and Cleopatra.
She is currently working on a book about the 17th century Duke of Buckingham, the favourite, chief minister and lover of King James. Website
Lucy teachers our intermediate historical fiction course.
Read Lucy’s top tips for finding your voice when writing historical fiction →
