Creative Writing PhD student, Felicia Catalina Buciu, wins the Graduate School Research Poster Competition

I am absolutely delighted to win this research poster competition and represent the School of Arts and the Creative Writing programme. My PhD tutor, Celia Brayfield encouraged me to participate. Although I wasn’t keen on the idea at first, since I thought this was taking precious time away from writing my PhD novel, I trusted Celia’s recommendation that getting exposure to other people’s points of view was going to be worth the experience. Celia is a fantastic tutor with great insight into the publishing world as well as an outstanding teacher and mentor, so I knew her advice was worth its weight in gold.

Indeed, the poster conference was a great opportunity to engage with other PhD students and learn about their research projects but also a moment of reflection, listening to the judges’ questions and taking in their suggestions.

But most of all, I experienced the most exciting moment to me as a writer: talking to potential readers. The premise of my novel, ‘Stay Hungry, Stay Choosy’, is that by 2050 Italy is a de jure gerontocracy that cannibalises its young. Thus, young people in Italy will be used as spare organ parts for an ageing population, if they don’t make it in a socially acceptable way by the age of 30. Through a journey of discovery of the ‘personal is political’ 1970’s feminist movement, my 33 year old female protagonist, Alida, is in a race against time to save herself and her generation.

I was thrilled to see that my work in progress raised the visitors’ interest. I was also happy to be able to convey the potential for creative writing to use the universal language of storytelling and draw upon inter-disciplinary research to make sense of the world.

I endeavor to finish my novel by the end of this year and I look forward to working alongside my tutor, the wonderful and resourceful academic and support staff at the School of Arts and the exceptionally supportive staff at the Graduate School.

Please click on the image above to view the winning poster.