AN English and creative writing student at Aberystwyth University has secured a prestigious deal with Picador, one of the world’s leading publishers of fiction.

Picador has acquired the world rights in all languages to Kiare Ladner’s “funny, urban, literary” debut novel Nightshift, which is set to be published by the Pan Macmillan imprint in autumn 2019.

South African-born Kiare is currently finishing a PhD in creative writing at the Department of English and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University.

Her first novel evolves from a novella of the same name which has been submitted as part of her doctoral thesis, Shifting Territories.

Kiare’s PhD at Aberystwyth was funded by the university’s Doctoral Career Development Scholarship, now known as AberDoc.

As part of her scholarship Kiare also taught undergraduate students in the department, inspiring the next generation of creative writers to follow her shining example of creative practice.

Dr Louise Marshall, head of the Department of English and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth, said: “We are absolutely delighted to hear of Kiare’s wonderful success in securing a publishing deal with Picador. This is an incredible breakthrough for a new novelist and one that Kiare undoubtedly deserves.

"Her PhD supervisor, Prof Matthew Francis, has always been fulsome in his praise of Kiare’s incredible talent and it is very gratifying to see public recognition of her writing on such a grand scale.”

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