Tice Cin

Tice Cin
Cin, photographed by Eric Aydin-Barberini, 2020
Born	Enfield, London, England
Alma mater	University of Reading University of Northampton University College London
Occupation	Interdisciplinary Artist
Website	www.ticecin.com

Tice Cin (born April 1995) is a British writer and multidisciplinary artist from North London. Her debut novel Keeping the House (2021) received a Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for a British Book Award and the Desmond Elliot Prize among other accolades. Her documentary 'How Much Can You Say?' for BBC Radio 4 was cited as "incredibly powerful" at the 2024 Audio Production Awards.

Cin was born to Turkish Cypriot parents and grew up between Enfield and Tottenham.^[1] She began her undergraduate studies in English literature at the University of Reading and secured a Certificate of Higher Education before switching to the University of Northampton. She wrote her dissertation on portals and the unconscious mind.^[2] She went on to complete a Masters in English: Issues in Modern Literature at University College London (UCL), specialising in fluids and the posthuman body.^{[3][4] [5]}

In her teens and early twenties, Cin began her involvement with the North London music scene and admired the likes of Lex Amor, CASISDEAD and Gladdy Waxx. ^[6][2][7]

Cin got her formal writing start when she joined the poetry community Barbican Young Poets.^[8][9] She also began creating digital art for Design Yourself, a collective based at the Barbican Centre.^{[10] [11]}She joined the advisory board of the Poetry Translation Centre (PTC)^[8] and worked in various roles for the likes of Headway East London, Poetry School, Tilted Axis Press (where she was Associate Art Director and Commissioning Editor) ^[12] and Mixmag.^{[13] [14][15]}

Having received a 2018 London Writers Award and been mentored via the Arvon Foundation,^[16][17] Cin published her debut novel Keeping the House in 2021 via And Other Stories. Set between 1999 and 2012,^[18][19] the novel is set in and around the north London heroin trade, and follows three generations of women centred around the character Damla as she comes of age in and around Tottenham's Turkish Cypriot community. The concept came from Cin's desire to see her part of London in literature, with the novel taking place between Tottenham and North Cyprus.^[4] Keeping the House also considered 'glitchiness' and the way that hood surrealism is expressed in the minds of her characters.^[20] Cin incorporated poetry into the narrative and created a mixtape, DJ mix and playlist to accompany the novel.^[21] Keeping the House won a Somerset Maugham Award and a London Writers Award. It was also shortlisted for a British Book Award, the Desmond Elliott Prize, and the Jhalak Prize.^[22]

Tice has been a judge on numerous literature and music prizes, including DJ Mag's Album of the Year and Best of British Awards, the Dylan Thomas Prize 2024, and Spread the Word's Early Career Bursary.^[23][24][25]

Cin is the founder of interdisciplinary discovery vehicle, label and production company Neoprene Genie. Cin and her team at Neoprene Genie have produced films, curated immersive theatrical music shows and community parties, creative directed and produced print-magazine editorials and collaborated with numerous partners including Mixcloud, BBC Radio 4, No Vista, Enfield Council and Spread the Word. ^{[26] [27] [28]}

In May 2024, Cin produced How Much Can You Say? a radio documentary for BBC Radio 4 with Jude Shapiro of Peanut & Crumb.^[29] The documentary looked at decades of calculated gang warfare involving Turkish, Turkish Cypriot, and Kurdish heroin dealers on the streets of north London, through the careful accounts of women and young people on the edges of that world. How Much Can You Say? featured creative direction, music composition and original poetry from Tice Cin. At the Audio Production Awards organised in November 2024, Jude Shapiro won Best Factual/ Documentary Producer for her collaboration with Cin on How Much Can You Say? which was cited as 'incredibly powerful, featuring voices and stories rarely heard in this space'.^[30] 'How Much Can You Say? was also selected for the BBC Illuminated Podcast – a programming strand for 'one-off documentaries that shed light on hidden worlds'.^[31]

In June 2024, Cin was selected by the British Council and National Centre for Writing as one of their ILX 10 which showcases writers of prose, poetry, creative non-fiction, and those working across intersections of form.^[32]

In 2024, Cin joined her publisher And Other Stories as a contributing editor.^[33]

• Keeping the House (2021)

• "Soprano Machine" in Cybernetics or Ghosts? (2024 anthology), edited by Michael Salu and published by Subtext Books. This anthology was also released with an accompanying album featuring Roly Porter Vietnamese collective Rắn Cạp Đuôi, KMRU, Turkish composer and artist Başak Günak aka Ah! Cosmos and more. ^{[34] [35]}
• "Loopholes" in Granta (2023)^[36]
• "Outside, Inside, Both" (2023)^[37]
• "The list" in Cybernetics or Ghosts? (2023 edition), edited by Michael Salu for the Writers Mosiac^[38][39]
• "Books That Read Like a Club Scene From the Sopranos" in Electric Literature (2021)^[40]
• "Notes on Queerness and Camp in Crime Fiction" in Literary Hub (2021)^[41]
• "for People Who Feel Glitched" in the Burley Fisher Bookshop Blog. (2021)^[42]
• Tice Cin for A Personal Anthology on her favourite short stories (2021)^[43]
• A Walk in Tottenham: Tice Cin’s Keeping The House Playlist in The Quietus (2021) ^[44]
• House party and non-mainstream party culture from Tottenham to Enfield in GUAP (2021) ^[45]

• "LilC4 on his new Jersey club style" in Mixmag (2024)^[46]
• "Making Moves: The changing shape of breaking" in DJ Mag(2023) ^[47]
• "The endless evolution of Jersey club" in DJ Mag (2022) ^[48]
• "Karen Nyame KG, the Goddess of Rhythm" in Mixmag (2021) ^[49]
• "Ase Manual: Finding Freedom Through Music" in Mixmag ^[50]
• "Get to Know: Fred Jones" in New Wave Magazine ^[51]