Impact case study: Eliza Clark

Eliza Clark, Talent Fund recipient

Eliza Clark received a grant from the Young Writers’ Talent Fund in 2018. She has gone on to publish Boy Parts with Influx Press (2020) and Penance with Faber & Faber (2023), both to critical acclaim. In 2023, she was named on Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists 5. This list is published every ten years and names the twenty most significant British novelists under forty.

New Writing North’s support was invaluable

“[The grant] was utterly invaluable…I sincerely doubt I would’ve written Boy Parts without it. I was working in retail when I was offered the award. My motivation and confidence were completely in the toilet. I couldn’t afford to dedicate any time or money to writing, and I just wasn’t aware of any mentoring or funding opportunities which could help.

The training and mentoring I received from New Writing North was genuinely life-changing, both in giving me space and time to do work, and experience which was invaluable in getting an office job in the creative industry (which, for me, has been far more compatible with maintaining a writing practice than the physically and emotionally draining retail role I was in).

Mentoring and training really built up my confidence; reawakened my passion for writing and gave me the push I needed to finish and submit my work, and helped me discover how much I enjoy facilitating. I really cannot overstate the impact the Talent Fund has on my life.”

Eliza Clark, 2020