Summary of the impact

The Department has worked proactively to bring creative writing out from the institutional sphere and into the public domain. While creative writing is often perceived as a niche activity largely confined to university writing programmes, Warwick's writers have broken new ground with their approach that writing can take all forms, that creativity is open to everyone, and that writing has the power to intervene meaningfully in the world. This commitment is demonstrated through a range of activities that include active involvement in campaigns for the freedom of expression, the foundation of distinctive literary prizes, widespread communication of interactive material through social media, and the establishment of new publishing houses and literary magazines.

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 describes the impact of two poetry collections authored by Dr Abi Curtis, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and English Literature. The research explored and disseminated in two journal articles is intrinsically linked to the two poetry collections, which are practice-based explorations of an ongoing body of research. The research conducted in the two academic articles has had a direct impact on the practice-based work — the two poetry collections. These, in turn, have had impacts on the reading public, other artists, and students in different disciplines.

Summary of the impact

This case study describes the work of Professor Tony Lopez and its impact on the contemporary world of poetry and the creative and cultural economy. The impact has been on the general reading public, (who have recognised the importance of Lopez's works, on the writing community itself through Lopez's influence of creative practice, and on the publishers, editors, curators, arts festival programmers, and translators who work within the creative and cultural sectors of the economy. Publication, awards won, critical reception, and consultancy positions support the claim to impact.

Summary of the impact

This case study concerns the impact of the research group `Contempo', which engages in an iterative relationship between poetry and poetry criticism. Key themes for the critical basis of this group's poetry are: life and poetry-making; historically informed poetry; ekphrastic poetry. The group has generated two types of impact a) Cultural Life and b) Education. The beneficiaries are a diverse range of audiences: 1) those attending the poetry readings of this group in person; 2) those witnessing media events (especially Radio); 3) those using social media for discussion and comment and 4) those engaging in writing classes outside of the academy, particularly A level students and adult learners.

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

This case study reports impact on the publishing industry achieved through:

• International sales of authored and co-authored books, regarded as the key texts on the subject.
• Keynote contributions to the major industry-based children's publishing conferences (Bologna, Seoul, London, Paris, Valladolid).
• Invited membership of international awards juries for picturebook illustration (Bologna, Seoul), influencing/shaping trends in picturebook design.

Impact on the wider community/public awareness of picturebook-making is achieved through:

• Invited media appearances including three-part BBC TV series, Picture Book, 30-minute interview on NPL Radio USA (15m listeners), BBC Radio 4, and Newstalk Radio Ireland.
• Book sales.

Impact on subject within HE worldwide:

• Authorship of key-texts: Salisbury's texts have been in Amazon top twenty bestseller lists for Illustration for over ten years.

Summary of the impact

Research in writing and the small presses at the University of Salford has directly impacted upon the creation of new contexts and networks for the development and showcasing of innovative writing. It has:

• Informed novel approaches to publishing poetry and influenced new publishing ventures;
• Shaped new places and spaces for performance and inspired and supported new generations of poets in creating career paths in their field;
• Diversified audiences through the creation of a lively alternative literary scene committed to experimental methodologies and defined by inclusive communities of expression and original forms of participation; and
• Enabled the creation of an archive of performances, a unique resource for the experimental writing scene.

Summary of the impact

Building on the University of Surrey's long history of involvement in the post-war British poetry scene, Surrey's School of English and Languages conducts research into some of the key questions surrounding contemporary poetic practice.

This research underpins the School's commitment to championing and investigating the most recent and innovative wave of contemporary British poetry: the renewed focus on a Modernist aesthetic that characterizes much of twenty-first-century verse.

The School has established a series of public events to bring this challenging and rewarding body of work to a wider audience. These events have made a significant economic contribution through their promotion of the British poetry industry, and have had a marked cultural impact on public access to and understanding of avant-garde poetry in the county of Surrey and across southeast England.