About First Ink

First Ink has four guiding aims:

  • To celebrate student excellence through the first-time publication of exemplary assignment writing in the arts and humanities

  • To throw light on the often hidden assumptions and conventions of academic writing through analysis and discussion of exemplars

  • To represent the writing talents of students from varied backgrounds across the Schools of Humanities and Performing and Digital Arts

  • To promote collaboration between staff and students in the continuing development of a thriving and sustainable magazine with a new themed update published each year.

First Ink is on a journey. We would welcome your feedback on how it can improve and grow. Please take a moment to give us your views.

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Meet the First Ink Creatives

First Ink has been developed by a group of talented student creatives working in partnership with CeDAS and the Schools of Humanities and Performing and Digital Arts. You can find out more about the First Ink team below.

  • Seb Gardiner

    Seb Gardiner (2022)

    Seb has written for The Founder, The Orbital, and The Tab, and elsewhere for The Guernsey Press. Aside from First Ink, Seb spent the summer of 2022 working on his play for the Peripeteia Theatre, Manchester, with performances across August and September. With an interest in early and religious drama, Seb hopes to continue studying medieval literature and drama after graduating.

  • Carmen Anderson

    Carmen Anderson (2022)

    Carmen studies Drama with Film. During her gap year, she wrote for a variety of companies based in Gibraltar such as The Gibraltar Chronicle and The Gibraltar Magazine. Carmen also started a blog during lockdown, Into the Industry, where she interviews industry professionals on how they worked their way up into their careers. Apart from writing, Carmen loves getting involved in all that she can: she is President of Drama Society and School Representative for the School of Performing and Digital Arts.

  • Mieke Nel

    Mieke Nel (2023)

    Mieke is a third year English and Classics student at Royal Holloway University. During her time at university, she has particularly enjoyed taking Archaeology modules for Classics and is focussing on Roman archaeology for her dissertation. She has always loved reading and museums, and while at university, she has worked in heritage and is on the editorial board for The Orbital magazine. She has thoroughly enjoyed working on First Ink and can’t wait for it to be released!

  • Isobel John

    Isobel John (2023)

    Isobel is a Welsh Music and English BA student in her third year at Royal Holloway. She loves being able to explore themes in musical theatre through performance, as well as studying the likes of Virginia Woolf. Recently, she has taken several opportunities to gain experience in the arts management industry and is looking forward to completing her undergraduate degree with Royal Holloway this year. Furthermore, she has thoroughly enjoyed working as one of the developers of the 2023 issue of First Ink!

  • Rusty Thorne

    Rusty Thorne (2023)

    Rusty is currently in the midst of their third year studying a BA in English and Drama. Their favourite areas of study are queer theory and gender studies - in particular, the exploration of these concepts within theatre and literature. For them, writing and performing are both a creative outlet and a coping mechanism: a satisfying medium of self-expression. Outside of their degree, their interests include dancing and sleeping.

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Acknowledgments

The First Ink team wish to thank the following for their invaluable support:

  • Will Shuler for having faith in the project and providing strong advocacy when it mattered.

  • The many academics in both Schools for assembling a short list of first-class writing from across a range of modules.

  • Our student panels for making the final selections for publication:
    2022: India Drew, Sophie Pell and Olivia Earl
    2023: Jessica Hancock, Holly Ginn, Joey Pendered, Zachary Thompson, Sol Harrold and Jocelyn Howarth

  • And, most of all, our contributors to First Ink - both staff and students.