Carys is no stranger to hard work – she’s an OU graduate after all, and achieved her degree while raising a family. She’s continued her passion for education and creative writing and earlier this year won The Scott Prize, an international fiction award, which means her short story collection Sweet Home is now on the bookshelves.
“It’s really hard to get a short story collection published, particularly if you are a first time author. I knew that Salt Publishing had something called the Scott Prize which they award annually for a debut collection of short stories by a writer from the UK, Ireland, USA or Australasia, and I decided to enter. I was over the moon to be shortlisted and I couldn’t believe it when I had a phone call to say I’d won.
“My book is called Sweet Home and it’s a collection of stories about families. Some of the stories are funny, some are sad and there are a couple of modern fairy tales, too.
“The book includes a stories about an old woman who builds a gingerbread house at the edge of an English village, a father who is reminded of his son as he watches the rescue of a group of Chilean miners, a mother who buys special-offer babies at the supermarket and a little boy who tries to engineer a happily ever after following the death of his sister.
The last time Platform spoke to Carys, she was working towards an MA in Creative Writing at Edge Hill University and had just won a short story competition. She says her OU studies prepared her well for postgraduate study.
“My MA went really well. I concentrated on short stories and I was lucky because one of the staff at Edge Hill is a brilliant short story specialist. My OU studies definitely prepared me for postgrad study. I think OU students have to be especially self-disciplined because they often need to study in what’s supposed to be their ‘free’ time. I developed some good study habits while I studied with the OU and I kept them up during my MA.”
Ambitious – both in terms of her writing career and her continued education, Carys is penning a novel as well as working towards a PhD.
“I’m hoping to get the first draft of the novel finished before Christmas and I’m in the second year of the PhD,” she says.
But OU study prepared her well and she’s become a master of finding time to get her work done.
“I’ve got four children and it can sometimes be hard to find the time to write, but it was also hard to find the time to study - I think if you really want to do something, you’ll do your best to make the time.
“I write in the same way that I used to study; I squeeze it into the gaps. At the moment I’m teaching on Edge Hill’s Creative Writing BA. That leaves me with two days a week when the house is quiet and I can get on with writing (although sometimes I’m interrupted by need to buy food or hoover up the detritus from four pairs of football boots).”
And her advice for current creative writing students is…
“Read lots. If you’re writing short stories ask your tutor to recommend some really good collections. My tutor was happy to do that and he actually introduced me to the work of Carol Shields who is now one of my favourite authors.
“The other thing I would say is, don’t worry if you don’t lead a very exciting life! I used to worry that I didn’t have anything interesting to offer because I’d been at home with my children for so long. Then I realised that everyone has some sort of family; I felt that I knew a lot about family, so I did have something to write about, after all.”
And what would she say to someone thinking of studying with the OU?
“Go for it! I had brilliant, supportive tutors and I enjoyed everything about the experience.”
Find out more:
Literature and creative writing courses at the OU
Creative writing with the OU
More about Carys Bray
Platform's first interview with Carys
