ON July 14, 2026 / BY EDITOR SOPHIE NAMBUFU / LEAVE A COMMENT

Every year, The Brunel Writer Prize is awarded to the student with the highest graded article submission for the Creative Careers module on Brunel University’s Creative Writing Programme. Congratulations to this year’s Brunel Writer Prize winner, Tamsyn Down, for her article ‘Carpe Diem, Middle-Aged Mode Activated’. 

Be warned: one minute you’re burning the candle at both ends, the next, you find yourself admiring a colleague’s cardigan pockets and discussing air fryer recipes. If this resonates with you, stop—take drastic action before the double-zipped slippers lure you in. Find something that makes you uncomfortable (not Nigel Farage), then dive out of your comfort zone, because that’s exactly where your magic is hiding.  

Embarking on a Creative Writing degree, as I approach fifty, has been a revelation. I regularly resist the urge to skip back to my car after an enlightening lecture or when savouring the mental uplift as creative minds merge in a workshop. Although it was autumn when I began my Brunel journey, an awakening has jump-charged my life. I transformed into a person whose hand flies up and down to answer questions in seminars, gladly immersing myself in set texts, long into the small hours at home. Shedding my self-consciousness is not so much about discovering new confidence, but a surety of knowing how quickly life passes by, and there’s no time to waste—carpe diem, middle-aged mode activated. 

Grasping this gamble firmly, I’ve set about making the most of every opportunity university life offers, apart from clubbing at ‘The Venue’ (my days of waking up with a furry mouth hugging a kebab are over). If there’s an additional online webinar, a chance to work with the subject librarian, open mic nights or a competition for emerging writers and poets, count me in. To date, this somewhat maniacal, yes, approach has led to my poem being published in an anthology celebrating Benjamin Zephaniah (our late, great, much-missed legendary professor), an invitation to perform this at two university events, a free trip to Belgium representing Brunel, and the writing and directing of a short film as well as risking my sanity for stand-up comedy. Finding myself in front of a packed theatre, eager for entertainment, has been my most elaborate form of self-harm to date. Yet, somehow, despite my stomach churning in resistance, I found myself delivering quirky anecdotes, rising on the swell of laughter beyond the bright stage lights. 

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None of these experiences would be possible without the gentle patience and acceptance I’ve found within Brunel’s Creative Writing community, both students and teachers alike. Without the former, I might’ve self-combusted, reduced to smouldering, scorched slippers, presented with seemingly incomprehensible tasks like retrieving essay chunks, inadvertently deleted when my cat pounced on my laptop, losing my car in the car park, or working out the witchcraft of Wiseflow. No question is too big or too small—I’m never too much, even when my anxiety litters my logical brain. During a recent meeting with my form tutor, my fears surrounding my special project completion wobbled wildly through my voice. Calmly, I was reminded: “Tamsyn, it’s week one.”

Conducting dual lives can be jarring, but becoming a mature student is a game-changer, which I’d highly recommend—unlock your secret second life. Regenerating from an NHS administrator to a student, unglamorously Doctor Who-style in the car, is entirely worth it, even if I’ve developed a risky relationship with caffeine, careening around the M25 at odd times. Creating a world of opportunity with words has led to unimaginable possibilities far exceeding air fryer recipes (although secretly I champion both). Days quickly melt into decades, making time an invaluable commodity. Why sit with a what if, when you can turn what might be into a life driven by your dreams? Free your hands from your cardigan pockets, then sign up for that course!