Literature prizes awarded to top performing University of Brighton students

English students, Angelica Blake-Lawson and Olivia Woods-Jones awarded the Peter James English & Creative Writing Breakthrough Awards

Angelica Blake-Lawson scooped the award for being the top performing second year student on the English Literature & Creative Writing course in 2022-23. Olvia Woods-Jones was awarded the same prize for the English Language & Creative Writing course. The £500 awards are generously donated by Peter James, best-selling author and filmmaker.

On receiving the award, Angelica said, “I was absolutely delighted to hear that I’d won the Peter James English Literature & Creative Writing Breakthrough Award. It means so much for my efforts to be recognised and supported as I continue my studies at the University of Brighton. This award has motivated me to continue to aim high and achieve my goals for my final year and my future as a writer.”

Olivia said, “I am extremely thankful to have been granted this award – it has boosted my confidence massively as a creative writer, and as my university experience draws to an end, I will be able to use this funding to help in my future endeavours, such as going travelling and teaching English abroad.”

Donor, Peter James told us, “I’m delighted to sponsor the annual Peter James English & Creative Writing Breakthrough Award at the University of Brighton. Being a writer is a tough and lonely world and even the smallest nugget of encouragement makes a massive psychological difference. I know this from long experience, from the boost winning a school poetry prize gave me when I was fifteen to the much bigger boost winning a BBC short story competition a few years later. I so much hope that the award gives all winners, as well as all who were nearly winners, a little boost of confidence that they have real talent and should persevere.”