The path to publication: Grace Murray on Blank Canvas
From The Writing Life by National Centre for Writing
March 23, 2026 · 35 min · Episode 365
About this episode
Grace Murray discusses her journey from mentorship to publishing her debut novel Blank Canvas.
In this episode of The Writing Life, literary newcomer Grace Murray shares the process from mentorship to the publication of her debut novel Blank Canvas – a work of literary fiction about grief, reinvention and the ripple effects of telling lies. Grace Murray was born in 2003 and grew up in Norwich. She has recently graduated from Edinburgh University, where she read English Literature and found time to write between her studies and two part-time jobs. Her short fiction has been published in The London Magazine. Blank Canvas was written over the course of a year as part of WriteNow, Penguin Random House’s flagship mentorship scheme for emerging talent. Grace Murray won one of nine places on the scheme on the exceptional strength of her writing, selected from a pool of over 1,300 applicants. She sat down with National Literacy Trust’s Victoria Tynemouth to reflect on her path from early creative mentorships to publishing Blank Canvas. In their conversation, she also discusses writing about the female body, her approach to crafting unreliable and unlikeable narrators, and the process of developing her own voice and identity as a writer. Help us to support more young writers like…
People in this episode
Host: Victoria Tynemouth
Guest: Grace Murray
Topics covered
- publication process
- mentorship
- literary fiction
- grief
- female body
- writing identity
Keywords
- Grace Murray
- Blank Canvas
- mentorship
- literary fiction
- writing process
- female narrators
- young writers
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: National Literacy Trust, Penguin Random House
Books & works: Blank Canvas
Places: Norwich, Edinburgh
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- Wonder and Loss: Writing Grief and Memoir with Sam Meekings · March 9, 2026 · 1h 4m
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