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The Sonny Mehta India Scholarship means everything to me. The generous support it has afforded me in the pursuit of my craft has not only strengthened my voice but also my conviction that one must create work with the potential to shape our futures on this planet.
- Zui Kumar-Reddy, The Sonny Mehta India Scholar
Creative writing at UEA
Founded by Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilson in 1970, the Creative Writing MA course was the first of its kind in the UK and remains one of the world’s most prestigious programmes.
It created a literary ecology that has enabled some of the most lauded and innovative writers of the last fifty years.
Ian McEwan was the first student to undertake the course and the programme now boasts more published and prize-winning authors than any other institution in the UK. Its roll call of eminent alumni includes Nobel Prize Winner for Literature Sir Kazuo Ishiguro OBE, Anne Enright, Naomi Alderman, Tash Aw, Ayòbámi Adébáyò, Emma Healey, Louise Doughty, Neel Mukherjee, John Boyne and Tracy Chevalier.
The Sonny Mehta Scholarship Programme
In 2020, just as UEA was celebrating over 50 years of creative writing, we received an exceptionally generous gift to support international writers through the Sonny Mehta Scholarship Programme.
The gift was made by Gita Mehta in memory of her husband, Sonny, who sadly died in 2019. Sonny Mehta was editor-in-chief of US publishing house Alfred A Knopf and chairman of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and during his long and celebrated career, he published some of the most successful and influential authors of all time. They included Toni Morrison, John le Carré, and UEA's own graduate Sir Kazuo Ishiguro OBE.
In his memory, and to continue his life's work of supporting emerging writers, the Sonny Mehta Scholarship Programme will provide fully-funded scholarships on UEA's MA Creative Writing courses for writers from India, the Indian sub-continent, North Africa, the Middle East, and those who self-identify as Roma.
Support the programme
If you would like to support emerging international writers and elevate unheard voices, make a gift to the Sonny Mehta Scholarship Programme at UEA and help provide more scholarships for the next generation of talented writers.
If you would like to find out more, or to discuss making a larger gift, email the Development Office at supporter@uea.ac.uk