AN AWARD-winning Australian is to take up the post of writer in residence at University College Worcester.

Bernard Cohen, who recently won an Arts Council of England Writers Award, will spend 18 months working with students and communities in Hereford and Worcester.

UCW has mounted a campaign to make arts and crafts more accessible, both to students and local communities, and the writer in residence scheme is part of this.

His first task will be a web-based community project, showing what life is like nowadays in Hereford and Worcester.

People can submit their thoughts about what they do at work or during leisure time and they can find information about this at http://writing. worc.ac.uk

Inspiration

The 37-year-old is also holding a workshop-based creative writing summer school, From Site to Story, at UCW from Tuesday, July 31 - Thursday, August 2, which will look at writing about different landscapes.

He will also give a talk in the autumn about the inspiration for his novels.

He has written three novels, Tourism, The Blindman's Hat and Snowdome, which earned him a place among the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian Novelists in 1997, 1998, 1999 respectively.

His fourth novel, Hardly Beach Weather, will be published next year.

"We are delighted to welcome Bernard to the college," said Dr Catherine Neale, head of English and drama."

"Our courses increasingly offer opportunities for developing creative writing, and Bernard's presence at UCW is a valuable bonus for students and staff alike."

The residency is a project between UCW and Worcestershire County council's Cultural Services Division.

It has been jointly funded by the West Midlands Arts and the Higher Education Funding Council's Widening Participation Project at University College Worcester.