This month's New Writing 15 website update is now live. The theme for this month's focus is Music.

Music has always had its place in literature and a number of contemporary writers, including authors such as Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner and Sarah Champion have cleverly used the music scene as a cultural touchstone and as a way of exploring contemporary mores. In this month's special feature we examine how writers delve into the significance of music upon their characters' psyche, their physical and emotional responses to what they hear, and the environment in which they hear it. Youth culture, sexual attraction, drugs and bravado feature in these stories of contemporary life.

The website includes notes for teachers, notes for readers, author interviews and glossaries which will be updated on a monthly basis, focusing on a wide selection of short stories, poems, novel extracts and essays.