Summary of the impact

The Military Writing Network (MWN) was founded in 2009 by Siobhan Campbell, Principal Lecturer in the Department of English Literature and Creative Writing, Kingston University London. Drawing on research by Professor Rachel Cusk, Dr. Meg Jensen and Professor Vesna Goldsworthy into the interface between testimony, trauma literature, autobiographical fiction and recovery from trauma and related disorders, the MWN created and sustains partnerships with organisations working with veteran soldiers, sailors and airmen and their families toward investigating how creative writing practice can help them cope with issues relating to combat stress, both inside and outside mental health environments.

Summary of the impact

The impact of Professor Nigel McLoughlin's work has two main, interrelated facets. The first is the public dissemination of his poetry through a variety of media, including mass media. His work takes the Irish troubles as a main context, and addresses themes of violence, invasion, identity, belonging, and tradition. He has published widely and has been invited to perform his work to public audiences at numerous literary festivals. The second is his academic research into pedagogy and poetics. Here his academic work examines the creative process and principles of making poems and his research reflects how one can explore and teach the various textual, musical, rhythmic, formal and thematic considerations of poetry. His own poetry bears out this reflective relation to expressivity through its perpetual experiments with formal and musical considerations, imagery and the relationship of the poetic whole to multi-sensory images and embodied thought.

Summary of the impact

This case study is based on critical and creative work on the short story carried out by Cox which has made a contribution to a nationwide revival of interest in a genre that has traditionally been overshadowed by the full-length novel.

The Edge Hill Prize, awarded by the University for a published short story collection, was established based on this research. The Prize has made a significant and distinctive contribution to an increased awareness and appreciation, amongst publishers, writers, readers and critics, of the specificity of short fiction as a genre in its own right; and hence increased production, promotion and consumption of the short story collection, providing opportunities for short story writers in the creative economy. In addition, Cox has influenced the teaching and practice of short story writing through a number of key texts that are used extensively.

Summary of the impact

This study details the impact of Nicholas Royle's research on the teaching of literary theory and creativity in HEIs and beyond. Royle co-authored the textbook An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory (ILCT) with Andrew Bennett (Bristol). The book has achieved significant international reach, changing the way in which literary theory is taught in HEIs. Central to this project is a concern with how literary theory can be taught creatively and with new ways of linking theory and creative writing in the academy and beyond, approaches furthered by Royle's development of Quick Fictions events and a web-based app with Myriad Editions.

Summary of the impact

Bradford's exploration of the lives of modern British writers demonstrates how research can cross over into audiences beyond specialist academic markets. The impact of his research lies in:

• providing the ordinary reader with ground breaking insights into key modern British and Irish writers;
• offering reinterpretations, new understandings, and critical debate surrounding these writers, thereby contributing to a reframing of such writers in the public eye, with particular reference to the controversial aspects of the modern novel;
• his popular reception as a biographer stimulating collaborations with creative industries and providing meaningful commercial sustenance for the independent publishing sector.

Summary of the impact

Gunn is a writer of fiction, with works published by commercial literary presses and substantial sales to a general readership. The research constitutes an experiment with artistic form, reworking modernist techniques and themes, such as bricolage, the imitation of musical form and the feminist revaluation of domestic experiences and objects. The underlying research question is: how can the technical resources and cultural preoccupations of modernist literary experiment be deployed to engage and inform a 21^st-century reading public?

Gunn's research is communicated to the public through book sales, interviews, readings, and articles in the broadcast and print media, and through the Dundee Literary Festival. These activities enhance public understanding of the creative process for the wider community, providing cultural enrichment and economic benefit at the level of the local, national and international.

Summary of the impact

This study addresses the impact of researchers in the Writing and Environment Research Centre who have pioneered the `environmental humanities', contributing to public debate in a field of acknowledged political and cultural importance. Neale's work has been used by trade unions in the UK and overseas. Garrard's book is used in HEIs in the UK and abroad. Evans reaches public audiences with his BBC radio work and Guardian column; Kerridge with literary nature writing. Kerridge and Garrard have influenced the teaching of ecocriticism in numerous universities. Collectively, the centre contributes to public awareness of the cultural aspects of environmental questions.

Summary of the impact

As a prize-winning poet, novelist and teacher of Creative Writing, Professor Philip Gross's work is concerned with the development of individuals' creative practice (both adults' and children's), outside the academy as well as inside it. His work has led to a wider awareness of the ways in which creative process, particularly through cross-arts collaboration, can enhance our understanding of some of the most urgent challenges of contemporary society. Offering models of peace-building and communication in an age of cultural diversity and migration, it encompasses creative ways of envisioning the environment as well as human issues of dispossession, health and ageing.

Summary of the impact

Members of the University of Exeter's Programme for Creative Writing and Arts have translated their research-as-practice into regional, national, and international impact by introducing innovative forms of contemporary writing to a range of audiences through publications, several of which have had notable public acclaim; an events programme; and training workshops. Funded projects to develop new writing have strengthened relationships between academic and creative sectors and inspired new and successful writing careers. The main impacts of this research-as-practice have been to:

• create new forms of literary expression and enrich public appreciation of contemporary writing
• engage different publics in creative practice through participation and events
• inspire and support new forms of literary expression

Summary of the impact

Research carried out at The University of Manchester by the award-winning author Maria (M.J.) Hyland has both illuminated and challenged cultural assumptions about Multiple Sclerosis. Hyland's autobiographical and self-reflective writings have impacted on the public sphere in two ways: 1) they have opened up an international debate in the mass media, literary magazines and among those suffering from the condition about its relation to the practice of writing; 2) they have been used to train future practitioners outside academia such as authors and editors, enhancing the public understanding of writing as a profession and contributing to the success of the editorial consultancy company Hyland & Byrne, which she established in 2011.