Manya Wilkinson in Conversation with David Neville

Prizewinning author and creative writing teacher Manya Wilkinson joins David Neville and Hannah Holtschneider to talk about time, place, landscape and the lost world of Jewish Poland.

She will explore her writing process for ‘Lublin’, and what it means to write about the past with a contemporary voice, creating characters who are survivors, and incorporating humour into these narratives. She will also talk about her love of teaching these skills to others in her career as a creative writing lecturer.

This event is sponsored by the Edinburgh Jewish Literary Society, the Edinburgh Jewish Cultural Centre and the Edinburgh Jewish Studies research group at the University of Edinburgh.

Manya Wilkinson is a Jewish New Yorker who lives in the North of England. Her latest novel ‘Lublin’, has won both the Wingate Prize 2025 and The Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award 2025. Formerly a senior lecturer in prose and scriptwriting on the MA for Creative Writing at Newcastle University, she currently teaches writing workshops and mentors writers. Her first novel, ‘Ocean Avenue’, was published by Serpent’s Tail. Her dramas have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play, Saturday Drama, Writing the Century and Woman’s Hour.

David Ian Neville is an award-winning playwright, director, producer and presenter. He has produced a wide range of plays and series for BBC Radio including: ‘The Archers’; Alexander McCall Smith’s ‘44 Scotland Street’; ‘Behind Closed Doors’ by Clara Glynn; ‘The Quest of Donal Q’ with Brian Cox & Billy Connolly; and ‘Black Watch’ by Gregory Burke. Writing credits include the Fringe First Award-winning play, ‘Exile’ (Edinburgh & Bush Theatre, London); ‘Twelfth Day of July’ and ‘Across The Barricades’ (TAG & New Vic Stoke-on-Trent); and the award-winning TV plays ‘Martha’ and ‘The Audition’. He also produces podcasts and live events.

Hannah Holtschneider is Professor of Contemporary Jewish Cultural History at the University of Edinburgh, UK. She is a cultural historian of twentieth-century Jewish history, with a particular focus on the consequences of the Holocaust, Jewish identities, and Jewish/non-Jewish relations. She is the author of three monographs, ‘Jewish Orthodoxy in Scotland: Rabbi Dr Salis Daiches and Religious Leadership’ (EUP 2019), ‘The Holocaust and Representations of Jews: History and Identity in the Museum’ (Routledge 2011), ‘German Protestants Remember the Holocaust: Theology and the Construction of Collective Memory’ (Lit. Verlag 2001), and numerous articles. She is currently working on a family correspondence of Jewish refugees from Kassel.