In September, the fourth of our very successful and well received series of anthologies will be published. Suffolk Haunts: Original Stories Inspired by the Legends and Landscapes of East Anglia follows Suffolk Reflections: Original Stories Inspired by the Waterways of East Anglia, published last year. The stories in all four anthologies are written by our students on the MA in Creative and Critical Writing course at the University of Suffolk.
These soul-stirring and atmospheric tales seep out of the mists of the past, the ethereal East Anglian landscape and its ancient coastline. Each story emerges from the inspiration within specific locations and they are all connected by the undulations of land and time.
Every story includes an introduction and directions to the place where the tale takes place, so that you can immerse yourself in the stories whilst visiting the location too!
As you meander through the book, you will meet a ghostly landlady and haunting pub regulars, apparitions connecting the past to the present, mysterious entities and scary presences.
Also included are the shortlisted and winning entries from the Student New Angle Prize 2024. The Ipswich Institute offers the award as well as the national New Angle Prize, and the Creative Suffolk Author Award, which is sponsored by the University of Suffolk.
With this year’s anthology, I have had the pleasure of being a part of the editing team, which
has complemented my experience of being a student on the MA course. I have learnt a lot from the team regarding the importance of editing and how it is done. Indeed, one of the key pieces of learning that I have taken from both the course and the anthology is that reviewing, feedback, rewriting and editing are all essential for the evolution of a piece of writing, and is how a writer can grow, improve and transform their work.
Like the other writers in our anthologies, I find it is a real pleasure to actually see something that you have written in print, and to be published. This year, I find this shared experience has been further profoundly enhanced by working with fellow students and authors and editing their work for Suffolk Haunts. We all have our unique styles, and each ghostly story is so very different, offering deep and often moving insights into both life and the enigmatic East Anglian landscape.
Suffolk Haunts truly is a wonderful and thought-provoking collection of stories. We hope that readers enjoy our latest anthology, which will be available to buy from all good bookshops soon!
Sarah Waterson
This year marks the 120th anniversary of James' first ghost story collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904).
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