News / 04 Nov 2025
Creative Writing students collaborate with Light Night Leeds and the British Library
BA (Hons) Creative Writing
BA (Hons) Creative Writing students were invited to write a response to ‘Portals: The Machines of The World’, by Ocubo, which was co-produced by the British Library and projected at Leeds Civic Hall, Millennium Square, as part of Light Night Leeds 2025.
The brief was open to all year groups, and student were asked to submit a piece in any form which could be read in under 60 seconds. The entries were longlisted by Senior Lecturer Grace Holliday, with the winners chosen by Natasha Howes, Principal Curator, Light Night Leeds and Ruth Gamble, Culture Producer, British Library.
First place was awarded to Riley Mousier-Harrison for their evocative piece of prose ‘Child Wonderer’. Riley was invited to read their work in front of the projection, which was filmed by Light Night Leeds and used on their website and across all their social media channels.
“I really like this take and could immediately imagine the child looking up from its window into the night sky…I enjoyed the idea of the dream and that feeling when you first wake from a dream that it was all completely true.”
Ruth Gamble, Culture Producer, British Library
Second place was given to Dottie Hall for ‘An Ode to Equality; Lost in the Portals’, whose work was published on the Light Night Website, and third place to Alina Akram for ‘Drifting’ who was awarded a Waterstones gift voucher.
The judges enjoyed Dottie’s “gorgeous evocative language” which they felt summed up the dynamism of the piece, and praised Alina’s idea of taking the film as a starting point to create their own narrative.
The brief was set in collaboration with the British Library and Light Night Leeds. ‘Portals: The Machines of The World’ was co-produced by the British Library with the artists, Ocubu, creating a nine-minute animation inspired by science fiction classics including H.G Wells’ The War of the Worlds, Charles Dixon’s Fifteen Hundred Miles an Hour and Jules Verne’s A Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
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Riley Mousier-Harrison
Child Wonderer
Light Night Leeds is the UK’s largest annual arts and light festival running over two nights each October. Every year some of Leeds’s most recognisable landmarks are transformed by spectacular artworks and captivating performances by local, national and international artists.