We invite you to open your imagination and take a journey
through twenty bold, inventive, and moving stories from
the writers of UEA’s 2025 MA Scriptwriting cohort.

Across family kitchens and monster-infested forests, space
cafés and strange rivers that steal memories, these pieces
explore what it means to love, to grieve, to dream, to fail,
and to connect – however messily.

Within these pages you’ll find unexpected road trips, a birthday
dinner full of unspoken truths, explosive art installations,
a Jenga game that mirrors a relationship’s collapse, and a
playground military coup masterminded by fourth graders.
You’ll witness golden retrievers sipping coffee with aliens,
security guards bonding over wordplay, talking motivational
fish, and swans sparking viral scandals in the age of AI.

From tangled situationships to family fallouts, career callings
to moral dilemmas, failed robberies to misguided murder, this
anthology touches the surreal, the intimate, and the utterly
unexpected – with heart, wit, and guts.

Featuring an introduction by scriptwriter and course director
Steve Waters, and a foreword by acclaimed playwright Lucy
Kirkwood, this collection showcases twenty emerging voices
finding their power on the page – and giving us all a glimpse
of what stories can be.