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Tessa McWatt
Writer | Storyteller | Researcher
CreativeUEA
Professor of Creative Writing at The School of Literature, Drama & Creative Writing
Professor Tessa McWatt is deeply committed to creative work and interdisciplinary approaches. She is the author of seven novels, two books for young people and one non-fiction book.
Born in Guyana, Prof McWatt grew up in Canada and now lives in London. A Professor of Creative Writing here at UEA and Creative Writing Research Group Member, she won the Eccles British Library Award 2018. Her work has also been nominated for the Governor General’s Award, the Toronto Book Awards, The Hilary Weston Prize, and the OCM Bocas Prize. In 2021, she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
I work with stories and language and am interested in the poetry that exists between people. Language is crucial in our understanding of ourselves but also in remaking our possible futures in a world that is so formed by structural inequality. If we can make whole worlds on the page, surely we can reinvent how we live on this planet.
My Story
‘My creative writing is research that I’ve been engaged in since a young age. To create is to make an effort to order and understand the world.
I’m a writer who works to make connections with other writers and artists, whether graphic designers (in my novel Vital Signs) or composers (in my libretto). I’d like those collaborations to expand into other disciplines, so that we broaden our understanding of creativity and our effect, not only on our own disciplines but on the broader cultural, social and environmental landscape.’
Key Projects
Thinking Without Borders
‘Writing and interdisciplinary, cultural studies-based methodologies can involve marginalised and socio-economically underprivileged communities, producing literary non-fiction about their lives.
These approaches afford access for people who may not use the internet regularly, can support mental wellbeing, and generate new understandings of isolation, community and coping with Covid-19. We collaborate in intergenerational community-building, giving voice to individual and community experiences in original literature.’
Publications
- The Snow Line
- Vital Signs
- Higher Ed
- 'Oil': A Jar of Wildflowers
- Luminous Ink: Writers on Writing in Canada – Co-edited with Dionne Brand and Rabindranath Maharaj.
- The Knife of Dawn – Opera libretto based on the life of Martin Carter with composer Hannah Kendall.
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Read
more...Prof McWatt discusses her memoir 'Shame On Me', a conversation delving into racism and antiracism, the relationship between literature and activism.
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