Celebrating Success: Regent’s DPhil candidate Heather Colley signs TWO book deals
Date: 7/05/2025
We are delighted to highlight the fantastic achievements of current Regent’s postgraduate student, Heather Colley, who has recently signed two impressive book deals!
Heather came to Regent’s in 2022 to read for a DPhil in Literature and Arts. Her research focuses on late 19th and early 20th century jazz and blues aesthetics in transatlantic modernist literature, with a particular emphasis on the impact of musical forms and tropes on literary experimentation and cultural development.
Alongside academic study, Heather has been writing for several years, and her work has won several awards including: the Hopwood Award for Short Fiction, the Roy and Helen Meador Prize in the short story, and the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize Award. Over the past few months, Heather has signed two book deals!
The first – Heather’s debut novel – is a campus book titled The Gilded Butterfly Effect, which will be published by Three Rooms Press in October 2025. The Butterfly Effect is ‘an unflinching yet humorous perspective on modern campus life, from the highs of the non-stop party scene to the lows of prescription drug abuse, exploring issues of body dysmorphia and campus sexual assault.’ It’s available for pre-order online from Amazon, Waterstones and Blackwells.
The second deal is for a collection of short stories, set to be published by Serving House Books in winter 2026. Several of these stories were inspired by The Metamorphosis, Heather’s entry to the 2024 Oxford-BNU Creative Writing Award, which was recognised with a ‘Highly Commended Award.’ Another story in the collection won the Oxford Review of Books Short Fiction Prize in 2023. Pre-order details will be available soon!
Heather’s achievements are a testament to her talent and dedication as a writer, and we eagerly anticipate the release of her upcoming publications. Regent’s Park College is immensely proud to support Heather, and we encourage everyone to pre-order The Gilded Butterfly Effect to experience the brilliance of her writing first-hand. Congratulations, Heather!