Joanna Miller reflects on how Escalator 2022/23 transformed her debut novel, The Eights, from an ‘unwieldy’ first draft to its final form. The Eights is about the first women at Oxford University. It will be published by Fig Tree Penguin (UK) and Putnam books (US) in April 2025. Find out more →

How do you feel your selection for the Escalator programme has shaped your approach to writing and your writing process now you’ve had a little time to reflect on the process?

Although I signed with an agent a few months after being accepted on the Escalator programme, like many early career writers I still lacked confidence. Looking back, I was expecting too much of myself too soon. I had only been writing fiction for a year (taking a novel-writing course in lockdown) and when Escalator began I had just completed an unwieldy first draft of The Eights. I was aware there were a lot of problems with it but was unsure how to fix them.

My mentor Michael Donkor gamely read huge chunks of this first draft and suggested ways in which I might improve dialogue, cut exposition, link scenes, and sharpen characterisation. He helped me identify my strengths and development areas as a writer and I used his advice to compile an editing checklist which proved invaluable. I learned a great deal from Michael and there is no doubt his input (plus that of my wonderful agent Marina de Pass) made the manuscript tighter and more saleable. Michael encouraged me to take risks and have fun with my work (I definitely needed to lighten up!) and the deadlines for sending him extracts provided a welcome sense of structure and momentum to the editing process.

You have been signed by Fig Tree. Did Escalator help towards this deal at all, or change how you were able to connect with agents and publishers?

My deal happened nine months after Escalator ended and came about thanks to the hard work of my agent. However, there is no doubt that I gained confidence talking about my work during the programme and I was able to draw on this during Zoom calls with both Fig Tree and Putnam. Looking back, Escalator is the time when I stopped being apologetic about my writing. I also found the training in presentation skills useful preparation for promoting The Eights, as was the experience of reading to a large audience.

Escalator supports early-career writers from the East of England and often focuses on those who’ve experienced barriers to publication. What are your thoughts around supporting writers in this region; its specific opportunities and challenges?

I have lived in the East of England most of my life and am acutely aware that access to the arts is uneven throughout the region. Professional writing courses, retreats, editing packages, and competitions can be life-changing but costs can be prohibitive. Hence, the high-calibre support offered by Escalator is the stuff of dreams for many emerging writers. Escalator not only offers access to excellent mentoring but provides insights into the world of publishing and gives practical advice on how to gain funding.

Having recently gained caring responsibilities myself, I can attest that finding time and the mental space to write can be difficult for carers (there are over one hundred thousand unpaid carers in Norfolk alone.) Escalator has much to offer writer-carers. From the very first introductory day at Dragon Hall, mentees are encouraged to see themselves as writers and their work is taken seriously. To be invited into a writerly space as an equal and being given tailored support and advice, is both an affirming and motivating experience.

Funding in the arts has been hit hard over the years. What would you like to say to those who are considering donating to the Escalator campaign, or supporting NCW in other ways?

Your donations could make the difference as to whether a collection of poetry is published, a script is completed, or an autobiography is sold. You could be funding a life-changing experience for an emerging writer who otherwise might never share their story with the world. And society needs stories; it needs a mirror held up to it more than ever – to be reminded of what it is to be human and what we share as humans. That is what great writing does; it challenges, educates, entertains, and builds empathy.

What would you say to someone considering an application to Escalator?

Do it! Escalator is an extraordinary and rare opportunity; a fully funded, professional, welcoming, and transformative programme designed to launch emerging writers into the world. If you are successful, you will develop close links with your peers and share in their ambitions and future successes. You will work with a published mentor who will share their expertise for free (though I should add that being receptive to their critique is essential if you are to make the most of the opportunity). You will also get to spend time in Norwich, a wonderfully stimulating city and form an ongoing relationship with the National Centre for Writing at Dragon Hall.

Donate to support tomorrow’s writers, today.

Each year, our Escalator New Writing Fellowships provide a cohort of 10 emerging writers from the East of England with bespoke mentoring, masterclasses, industry connections and showcase events.

Over the past twenty years, we have helped 155 diverse writers hone their craft, get published, earn critical acclaim and more.

We can only do this thanks to the generosity of our supporters. Lovers of books and creative writing who recognise the need to support new talent.

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Joanna Miller studied English at Exeter College, Oxford, and later returned to complete an English teaching degree at the Department of Educational Studies. After ten years as a teacher and literacy adviser, she set up an award-winning poetry gift business. Her rhyming verse has been filmed twice by the BBC, and in 2015 she won the Poetry Prize, run by Bloomsbury Publishing and the National Literacy Trust.

In 2021, Joanna graduated from the Faber Academy, after which she was accepted on the Escalator Talent Development Scheme. The Eights, her debut novel about the first women at Oxford will be published by Fig Tree Penguin (UK) and Putnam books (US) in April 2025. It will be published in France and Germany in 2026.

The synopsis reads: ‘Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its 1,000-year history, the world’s most famous university has admitted female students. Burning with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms in Corridor Eight of St Hugh’s College. Beatrice, Dora, Marianne and Otto (collectively known as The Eights) have come here from all walks of life – driven by their own motives, each holding tight to their secrets – and are thrown into an unlikely, life-affirming friendship.’

Photo: Lucy Noble Photography