Epigram

The latest news and award-winning independent cultural journalism from students and staff at Bristol University

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Featured Writers

Lauren Hope Sanderson

Freelance journalist and Editor in Chief at Empoword Journalism. Bylines in Epigram, Bristol 24/7, Empoword Journalism and Her Campus.

Leanne Gayle

Former BBC Digital Content Apprentice.

Jake Paterson

Sarah Dalton

Sarah Dalton (she/her) is a MA News Journalism student at Cardiff University, and previous Head SciTech Editor for Epigram. She writes primarily on environmental and cultural issues for multiple publications …

Zoë Crowther

News and features journalistJunior political reporter PoliticsHome / The House magazineStories in The Sunday Times • South West Londoner • Daily Mirror • BristolLive • Bristol24/7 • Epigram • The …

Jordana Seal

I am currently in my final year at the University of Bristol, studying English and Theatre Studies.

Latest Articles

Finding artistic inspiration at home

University is time-consuming. Keeping up with seminars, readings, essays, and lectures whilst attempting to eat some food and maybe shower every day is a more impressive balancing act than tight-roping above New York City.

By Annie McNamee
27th January 2024 • Epigram

What is your degree worth? | Scrutinising Sunak's crackdown on 'Rip-off degrees'

Rishi Sunak is a tough Prime Minister. At least, that’s how he’d like to come across. He’s tough on migration, tough on crime, and now, tough on education. In July, the PM announced that he and his government planned to crack down on ‘rip-off’ degrees, imposing caps on how many …

By Annie McNamee
23rd October 2023 • Epigram

Does having a job as a student put you at a disadvantage?

As a result of the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, having a job while at university has become increasingly common. Given the stagnation of maintenance loans — which have failed to keep pace with rising rent prices — and soaring inflation, it comes as no …

By Sofia Webster
16th October 2023 • Epigram

Does having a job as a student put you at a disadvantage?

As a result of the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, having a job while at university has become increasingly common. Given the stagnation of maintenance loans — which have failed to keep pace with rising rent prices — and soaring inflation, it comes as no …

By Sofia Webster
16th October 2023 • Epigram

In conversation: ‘Gaze’ at Edinburgh Fringe

Earlier this year, over 40 Bristol students geared up to strut and fret upon the stage before crowds of strangers as part of the annual Edinburgh Fringe theatre festival. One of the productions representing Bristol University was the show Gaze written and directed by Lilly Camyab, which was quoted by …

By Isabel Williams
10th October 2023 • Epigram

‘Home is where the art is’: The impact of art in forming community

Recently, I got a little drunk and a little philosophical with a friend of mine and we started talking about what it was that attracted us to the arts. As two students of English literature, we both agreed unquestioningly on our gut feeling that art was important but found we …

By Isabel Williams
21st September 2023 • Epigram

You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah: an endearing and light-hearted watch starring the whole Sandler clan

In the midst of big budget blockbusters flying into cinemas and streaming platforms left, right and centre - it was a comforting experience to sit and watch the heart warming, surprisingly nostalgic (and a tad cringey at times) coming of age comedy You Are So Not Invited to My Bat …

By Sofia Webster
18th September 2023 • Epigram

"If you're happy everything else will fall into place" - In conversation with The Undertones

From the release of their first album way back in 1979 to their compilation album of 2022, The Undertones’ music has always been the sound of carefree adolescent recklessness. Their rough-hewn but upbeat track ‘Teenage Kicks’ has long been a favourite with love-struck teens and indie bildungsroman movies alike. I …

By Isabel Williams
15th September 2023 • Epigram

Looking back at ‘Barbenheimer’

Barbie and Oppenheimer, known collectively as ‘Barbenheimer’, were both released on 21st July. They have had a huge impact on the film business as well as the public – one that is unlike anything experienced over the last few years. They are two strikingly different blockbusters going head to head …

By Sofia Webster
12th September 2023 • Epigram

Opinion | Finalists have been treated like sacrificial cash cows

The 2023 'graduating' cohort feels, above all, dehumanised. Our career prospects, financial security and certainty of our futures have been disregarded in the name of profit. It is a disheartening, but enlightening, reality that we are being sacrificed on the altar of greed.

By Lauren Hope Sanderson
19th July 2023 • Epigram

EpiCast: Epigram's Podcast on Spotify ft. Evelyn Heis

Evelyn Heis, Editor of the Film & TV section of Epigram, joins hosts Freya Shaw, Oscar Hunter and Marine Saint in this week's segment of Epicast: Epigram's Podcast, to talk about all things film and tv just in time for The Oscars.

By Evelyn Heis
11th July 2023 • Epigram

Windermere's Wake-Up Call: A Problem Caused By Humans, For Humans

The Croft Magazine // Most Bristol students know of Windermere or have holidayed there, but may be shocked to know that the lake has becoming toxic over the years. With the help of Emily from SciTech and interludes of Wordsworth's poetry, Isobel travels from North-West to South-West to bear the …

By Isobel Edmondson
25th May 2023 • Epigram

Paris: City of Impressions

In a city the world has immortalised, what are the lasting impressions of a local? Madison recalls her time in Paris, and the beauty of the everyday that she found there.

By Madison James
23rd May 2023 • Epigram

Review: Girli @ Thekla

If you asked one of Girli’s fans to describe her image in one word, it would almost certainly be “pink”. The colour is central to the artist’s branding, and rightfully so, as it communicates much about both her music and her persona as an artist: bright, brash, and unapologetically hyper-feminine. …

By Isabel Williams
30th April 2023 • Epigram

Cookbook Review: 'Shelf Love' by Ottolenghi Test Kitchen

The Croft Magazine// Yotam Ottolenghi is one of those chefs that just never fails to disappoint with his recipes. His cookbook is truly the epitome of the idea that taking that extra care and effort when cooking a meal always yields you the most fantastic results. As someone with Mediterranean …

By Sofia Webster
22nd April 2023 • Epigram

What does it take to be a woman in media?

At the first event of Epigram and the Croft’s ‘Women in Media’ careers week, Deputy Editor Marine Saint and Creative Director Freya Shaw sat down with a diverse panel of inspiring women from the media sector. In what promised to be the first insightful discussion of many, a lecture theatre …

By Lauren Hope Sanderson
19th April 2023 • Epigram

Plate X Playlist: Rainy Days

For this Plate X Playlist, Evelyn provides two cozy and warm recipes (Sopa Casera and Lentejas) that reminds her of home and Oscar curates an extra long playlist which perfectly encapsulates the pathetic fallacy of the ever so cumbersome British weather.

By Evelyn Heis
11th April 2023 • Epigram

Easter Baking: Spiced Easter Cookies

By Nicole Quy, The Croft Co-Editor in Chief The Croft Magazine// I’m a huge fan of Easter food, notwithstanding that it coincides with the emergence (finally) of the sun and warmer weather. Easter baking, especially, is often characterised by sweetness, both in the sense of taste and the tweeness that …

By Nicole Quy
7th April 2023 • Epigram

Infinity Pool is a satirical body horror that falls short of its potential

In Brandon Cronenberg’s latest cinematic release Infinity Pool (2023), sci-fi body horror and a Victorian-esque fear of the foreign combine to create a psychologically unnerving story of extreme exploitation. When the central protagonist, unsuccessful novelist James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård), arrives looking for inspiration at an exclusive seaside resort in the …

By Isabel Williams
31st March 2023 • Epigram

Little Miss Sunshine

By Nicole Quy, The Croft Co-Editor in Chief The Croft Magazine// Being an optimistic person is generally a great thing. To be able to have a positive impact on others by sharing this optimism can even feel like a privilege. But what happens when we begin to centre too much …

By Nicole Quy
28th March 2023 • Epigram

International Women's Month in Film & TV: Inspirational women we should all look up to

Growing up as a young girl, the women we see on our screens in films and TV shows are more influential to us growing up than we ever give credit. Especially with the prominence of the #MeToo movement, speaking out against sexism in the film and TV industry has become …

By Sofia Webster
24th March 2023 • Epigram

In the Borderline

The prospect of liminality may be defined as ‘occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold’, but in an era which has been characterised by a sense of the heimlich- to borrow from our German friends . The familiar nature of isolation and the solitary …

By Nicole Quy
12th March 2023 • Epigram

The Daisy Jones and the Six is successfully lifted from the page to the screen, and with added flare

By Jordana Seal
7th March 2023 • Epigram

Review: 'You Bury Me' at Bristol Old Vic

By Jordana Seal
1st March 2023 • Epigram

Dark Academia: The Impact Of Internet Aesthetics

By Anna Johnson, Second year English and French The Croft Magazine // Anna explores the 'Dark Academia' aesthetic and what TikTok's subcultures tell us about new age fashion. Alongside the emergence of hurtling fashion trend cycles, post-covid, came a kaleidoscope of internet aesthetics. An aesthetic outside of the internet is …

By Anna Johnson
28th February 2023 • Epigram

My Mother's House: Remembering a Place in Time

The Croft Magazine // When the world of travel feels more limitless than ever, the places from home are sometimes the ones most worth exploring.

By Finnuala Brett
26th February 2023 • Epigram

Review: Dramsoc’s ‘The Staff’ at Winston Theatre

“A job is a job” and “staff wellbeing is staff wellbeing” are just a couple of lines echoing the empty yet loaded circular phrase we hear too often when things are going downhill: it is what it is. Four years in the making, with feedback from Liverpool Everyman Theatre, Eleanor …

By Isobel Edmondson
22nd February 2023 • Epigram

A Letter To Her

We are often so cruel about ourselves and our bodies. But who are we really talking to?

By Nicole Quy
20th February 2023 • Epigram

Who took home the big wins at the 2023 BAFTAs?

Last night marked the 76th annual British Academy Film Awards, better known as the BAFTAs. Editor of the Film & TV section, Evelyn Heis, gives us a breakdown of the awards show and its winners.

By Evelyn Heis
20th February 2023 • Epigram

In conversation with UBAFC captain Pat Gibbs

I sat down with the University of Bristol’s Football Club Captain to understand how one of Bristol’s largest sports teams has become a community built upon ‘passion, dedication and success.’

By Jordana Seal
15th February 2023 • Epigram