Press
Press Release
04/02/2008
Costa appoints first-ever Writer-in-Residence
A novel role for new writing talent.
London, April 2nd 2008: Costa, the UK's largest and fastest-growing coffee shop brand, is pleased to announce the appointment of the first-ever Costa Writer-in-Residence.
From today, Costa has engaged aspiring new author, Davey Spens, as Writer-in-Residence for a period of six months. Costa will provide refreshments and unlimited use of its Costa stores as a place to write as well as a bursary to enable Davey to pursue his writing career with more freedom.
"Costa is very proud of what the Costa First Novel Award has achieved in bringing greater attention to new writers," said Kevin Hydes, Brand Marketing Manager at Costa. "When Davey approached us with the Writer-in-Residence idea we felt it tied into our ambition to support new writing talent in innovative and interesting ways."
He continued: "We also hope that hosting a Writer-in-Residence in our coffee outlets will inspire creativity amongst our employees and throughout our business."
Davey will spend the next six months completing his first novel, Teach Me To Swim, in Costa outlets across London with the additional support of a grant secured from the Arts Council.
"The residency at Costa is a massive boost," commented Davey Spens. "It comes at the perfect time as I look to finish my first novel and work through the editing process. Costa is providing a huge support to me, not only financially, but in terms of encouragement which, at this stage of my writing career, is priceless."
As well as providing an environment in which to complete his first novel, the residency will also enable Davey to experiment with new work and he will be creating a series of short stories entitled Frothy Tales for a weekly blog on the Costa Book Awards website.
These will take the form of quirky fictional observations on the Costa customers that he encounters whilst writing in Costa outlets across London. The first Frothy Tale entitled Matching Couple from Bayswater can be seen by going to www.costabookawards.com.
Kevin Hydes added," We're looking forward to working with Davey over the next six months and to seeing how the residency develops. If successful, our aim is for the Writer-in-Residence concept to become an annual initiative, enabling us to provide ongoing support to new writers at a critical point in their writing career."
The Costa Book Awards recognise the most enjoyable books of the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland. Originally established by Whitbread PLC in 1971, Costa announced its takeover of the sponsorship of the UK's popular and prestigious book prize in 2006.
www.costabookawards.com
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For further press information, please contact:
Amanda Johnson
Costa Book Awards Press and Publicity
Telephone: 07715 922180 (mobile)
Email: amanda@amandajohnsonpr.com
Notes for Editors:
The Costa Book Awards:
* The Costa Book Awards, formerly the Whitbread Book Awards, were established in 1971 to encourage, promote and celebrate the best contemporary British writing.
* The Costa Book Awards have the single aim of celebrating the most enjoyable books of the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland and have five categories: Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book.
* The 2007 winner of the Costa Book of the Year was A.L. Kennedy for Day (Cape).
About Costa:
* Costa is officially the largest and fastest-growing coffee shop brand in the UK with 1,000 stores globally.
* Costa was founded by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa in 1971.
* With almost 700 stores in the UK and over 280 internationally, Costa has enjoyed a remarkable period of growth since it opened its first store. It now operates in over 21 countries.
* Costa's in-store baristas are all coached in the art of coffee making at the company's unique Costa Coffee Academy based at its own roastery in Lambeth, London.
* Costa won the 2007 award for Best International Franchise Operator.
* Costa is part of the Whitbread family of brands.
About Davey Spens:
* Davey was born in Winchester in 1980 and read Sociology and Theology at Durham University.
* He spent a year at Falmouth Arts College studying for a Broadcast TV Postgraduate - shortly afterwards his short film Shadowboxer was selected for the London Film Festival.
* In 2004 he joined AMV BBDO, the UK's largest advertising agency, where he was based for four years, creating award-winning campaigns for Pepsico and the National Lottery.
* In 2007 he was named one of Marketing Week's Rising Stars.
* Davey has been commissioned to write an original screenplay for a Los Angeles film company, Alcove Entertainment ? currently in its third draft, the screenplay is called Driftwood and set in Cornwall.
* Davey lives and works in London and is represented by Jonathan Conway for Mulcahy and Viney.
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