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Maria Sanger is a PhD researcher in Creative Writing at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. She is writing a cycle of short stories that interweave historical and fantastic fiction. The Ridge and The Chessmen comprises sixteen interlinked stories inspired by the Lewis Chessmen, which were discovered on the Isle of Lewis in 1831. The thesis will explore the challenges of writing a collection of stories spanning different times, places, and cultures, how to create uncanny effects in historical fiction, in particular where archaeology is a prominent or recurring theme, and how to give the Chessmen a non-human voice or means of articulating their thoughts and experiences in fiction.
In 2019 Maria gained an MA with distinction in Creative Writing at ARU. In July 2023, a selection of her short pieces was published in Vanessa Gebbie’s Fifty-One and a Half Exercises: Games and Ideas for Writers (Ad Hoc Fiction). Since 2011 Maria has also been a music examiner for Trinity College London, in the UK and internationally.
Email: mls147@pgr.aru.ac.uk