— Congratulations to Malorie Blackman Scholarship Winner Lee Ong
- City Lit catches up with creative writing student Lee Ong, one of the winners of this year's Malorie Blackman Scholarship for 'Unheard Voices'
- We find out more about her time at City Lit, winning the scholarship and her ambitions...
City Lit launched the Malorie Blackman ‘Unheard Voices’ Scholarships in 2019. The programme provides three annual awards worth up to £1000 each to fund study within the City Lit Creative Writing department. The awards seek to support and encourage the creative and professional development of ‘Unheard Voices’, and can be used to fund courses within the City Lit Creative Writing department. Last week, we announced the three winners of the scholarship programme and we’ve been following their writing adventures this year.
Discover our Scholarship Programme.
The awards seek to support and encourage the creative and professional development of ‘unheard voices' at City Lit.
Q: Tell us a little bit more about yourself and your writing background?
A: My full name is Swee-Lee Ong. I was brought up in a family of five girls, and it was always difficult to get a word in edgeways, as we liked to talk at the same time, and we also argued a lot. It must have been a nightmare for my parents. My recollection is that it was always very noisy, and there was very little privacy in the three-bedroom terraced house that we lived in. As someone of mixed ethnicity, growing up in the Southeast of England in the eighties and nineties wasn’t easy, although it’s been interesting and sometimes eye-opening.
Writing was something I enjoyed when I was at school, but with balancing work and bringing up two young children, I didn’t have time to do this, although I thought about writing a lot, but never seemed to get round to putting pen to paper. During lockdown when others were baking their banana bread or sourdough loaves, joining online fitness classes, or sewing PPE, I started writing and rediscovered my love of reading. I was also temporarily posted at work into an internal communications role and found that I loved getting my articles on the intranet and helping others to communicate their stories in the best way possible. I discovered that City Lit offered online writing courses in 2021 and signed up to the Ways into Creative Writing course. Following that, I got a piece published in the City Lit anthology for 2021, and that was all the motivation I needed, to sign up to another writing course.
Q: What role does writing play in your life?
A: Writing has become a huge part of my life. I am now part of a writing group which has been formed with some of the great people I’ve met during my City Lit courses. The women that make up my group are so inspiring, and motivate me to continue writing, particularly when self-doubt starts creeping in. I’ve also found that it’s helped with self-reflection, particularly with some of those sticky moments in life.
Q: Who are your favourite writers and what stories have inspired you?
A: Last year I discovered Madeline Miller after I read “A Thousand Ships” by Natalie Haynes with one of my book clubs. My mum loved Greek mythology and would make us watch films like “Jason and the Argonauts”, which I loathed, so I would have actively avoided reading anything related to that subject. Thanks to Natalie, I discovered a love of Greek myths, which led to my reading Madeline Miller’s “Circe” - one of the best books I read last year.
I’ve also been motivated to write by reading memoirs such as “Educated” by Tara Westover, and “Lowborn” by Kerry Hudson. These two women have overcome significant obstacles and adversity growing up, and to get to where they are today, is hugely inspiring.
Q: What did you choose City Lit?
A: With my childcare commitments, I needed the flexibility to study online. Courses are also offered with a variety of dates and times, which is great, and I was able to fit my busy life around the courses. I also like the fact that the classes are in real time, and you have the opportunity to meet other people. I have learnt so much not just from the tutors, but also from the people I have studied with.
"I want to thank the City Lit team and Malorie for this opportunity. I can’t wait to begin."
Q: What courses have you studied at City Lit?
A: In addition to studying “Ways into Creative Writing”, and “Developing your Creative Writing”, I have also studied Introduction to Memoir and the continuation of that course. I was encouraged to continue memoir writing following the second course, where we spent one session looking at memoir writing, and then I found myself continuing to develop my own story in subsequent homework, so I thought that a course dedicated to memoir writing was the obvious next step. Our tutor, Julie Garton encouraged me to sign up to her continuation course, which I am glad I did, as I met my writing group through that last course.
Q: What made you decide to apply for the Malorie Blackman scholarship?
A: When I read about City Lit's Scholarship for “Unheard Voices”, I thought that accurately described me. There have been moments in my life where I have struggled to be heard, or to express myself, which has been frustrating, and has impacted both personally and professionally. Writing has really helped with that.
I was also motivated by the idea that if my piece was shortlisted, that Malorie Blackman would be reading something that I had written, although I never believed for one moment that this would happen.
Q: What do you hope to achieve through the scholarship scheme?
A: I want to continue developing my craft and would like to do some short story writing or possibly fiction. My long-term goal is to write a novel, and I hope that the scholarship scheme will guide me towards reaching that goal.
Discover our creative writing programme.
Learn to write stories, articles and poetry in the same college where big names in literature such as Malorie Blackman and Andrea Levy have trained.
