Writers Grant 015: Polly Manning

We’re well into the second year of The Working Class Writers Grant now and we are thrilled to announce Recipient #015 is Polly Manning. Polly sent us two texts that both got me right in the gut in different painful ways. One was a quick, sharp stab and a gasp; the other was an uncomfortable hug from the behind that got tighter and tighter until I felt sad and sick. Acute, emotional, affecting and bleak. I read both texts back to back and I immediately wanted to read more -  and that’s how I knew we’d found our next recipient. Bio: Polly Manning is a Welsh writer, and currently lives in the upper Swansea Valley in south Wales. Whilst she has worked in screenwriting and film direction, her main interest is in prose fiction - in particular, the short story. Her stories focus on life in rural and de-industrialised parts of Wales, with a particular interest in the ways in which young people find subversive meaning within these often 'bleak' realities. She is disinterested in the sentimental depiction of Wales as a mystical, Celtic wilderness detached from the miseries of capitalist neoliberalism, preferring to write stories about the people that actually live there. She is a Welsh-speaker, and currently working on a collection of short stories. Links below if you want to read her work: Read: Spider You can find Polly on Instagram and Twitter If you’re a working class writer, and would like to find out more info about our Writers Grant, pls visit the Writers Grant page on our webby for the FAQs and submission info! Thank you to Creative Debuts for funding the grant and allowing us to support working class writers in this way :)