Elizabeth Bowen Review

The Elizabeth Bowen Review is a peer-reviewed, open access online academic journal which publishes high-quality research on Bowen. It is published by the Elizabeth Bowen Society in the UK. Scroll down to check out past and upcoming essay competitions!

Editors

Nicola Darwood (University of Bedfordshire, UK)

Nick Turner (Open University, UK)

Editorial Board

Aimée Gasston (Independent scholar, UK)

Ann Rea (University of Pittsburgh, USA)

Michael Waldron (University College Cork, Ireland)

Frances White (University of Chichester, UK)

Advisory Board

Maud Ellmann (University of Chicago, USA)

Jessica Gildersleeve (University of Southern Queensland, Australia)

Allan Hepburn (McGill University, Canada)

Chris Hopkins (Sheffield Hallam University, UK)

Phyllis Lassner (Northwestern University, USA)

Patricia Laurence (City University of New York, USA)

Petra Rau (University of East Anglia, UK)

Nicholas Royle (University of Sussex, UK)

 
 

Competitions

Essay Competition 2025

The editors of the Elizabeth Bowen Review would now like to invite undergraduate and postgraduate students to submit essays that focus on Bowen’s life or work for the 2025 Essay Competition. Essays should be no more than 4,000 words in length (excluding reference list) and use the Harvard referencing system. The essay should be submitted by email to bowen@beds.ac.uk by 11.59pm on 31st January 2026 with the subject line ‘Essay competition 2025’.

The submitted essays will be judged by a panel, and the winner will have the opportunity to work with the editors so that the essay can be published in either Volume Eight or Nine of the Review. The winning essayist will be announced in Volume Eight.

For more information, please contact the editors, Dr Nick Turner and Dr Nicola Darwood, at bowen@beds.ac.uk.

Essay Competition 2023

The editors of the Elizabeth Bowen Review would now like to invite undergraduate and postgraduate students to submit essays that focus on Bowen’s life or work for the 2023 Essay Competition. Essays should be no more than 4,000 words in length (excluding reference list) and use the Harvard referencing system. The essay should be submitted by email to bowen@beds.ac.uk by 11.59pm on 31st December 2023.

The submitted essays will be judged by a panel, and the winner will have the opportunity to work with the editors so that the essay can be published in either Volume Six or Volume Seven of the Review. The winning essayist will be announced in Volume Six.

For more information, please contact the editors, Dr Nick Turner and Dr Nicola Darwood, at bowen@beds.ac.uk


Essay Competition 2022

The editors of the Elizabeth Bowen Review invite undergraduate and postgraduate students to submit essays that focus on Bowen’s life or work for the 2022 Essay Competition. Essays should be no more than 4,000 words in length (excluding reference list) and use the Harvard referencing system. The essay should be submitted by email to bowen@beds.ac.uk by 11.59pm on 25th June 2022.

The submitted essays will be judged by a panel, and the winner will have the opportunity to work with the editors so that the essay can be published in either Volume Five or Volume Six of the Review. The winning essayist will be announced in Volume Five (to be published in October 2022).

For more information, please contact the editors, Dr Nick Turner and Dr Nicola Darwood, at bowen@beds.ac.uk


Signed copy of Eibhear Walshe’s The Last Day at Bowen’s Court 

 
The Elizabeth Bowen Society is delighted to announce a competition to celebrate the launch of The Last Day at Bowen’s Court, a novel by Eibhear Walshe, published by Somerville Press. We have three signed copies of the book to give away to our lucky winners. These books will be signed with a personal message to the winners from Eibhear Walshe. To enter you must email the answer to the question below to bowen@beds.ac.uk 
 
Competition Question:  In what year did Elizabeth Bowen sell Bowen’s Court?
 
You can enter until midnight on 10th Sunday May. The winners will be randomly selected and announced shortly thereafter. Remember, we only have three copies to give away, so don’t wait for the competition results. You can order the book now from the publisher’s website http://www.somervillepress.com/b_court.html (no postage charge). 

If you win, you can gift your original copy to a friend, who will be an even better friend thereafter.


Essay Competition 2020

The Editors of the Elizabeth Bowen Review invite BA and MA students to submit essays which focus on Elizabeth Bowen’s life or work for the 2020 Essay Competition. Essays should be no more than 4,000 words in length (excluding reference list) and use the Harvard referencing system. The essay should be submitted by email to bowen@beds.ac.uk 11.59pm on 26th June 2020.

The submitted essays will be judged by a panel and the winner will have the opportunity to work with the editors so that the essay can be published in either Volume Three or Volume Four of the Review. The winning essayist will be announced in Volume Three (to be published in September 2020).

For more information, please contact the editors, Dr Nick Turner and Dr Nicola Darwood, at bowen@beds.ac.uk