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I am a writer and poet based in West Yorkshire. I have recently completed a PhD by research in Creative Writing, 'Writing Andrea Dunbar: Framing the Non-fiction Novel in the Literary North', at the University of Huddersfield and will publish my debut novel, Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile, in 2017.
I have published three chapbook poetry collections, the most recent, Dark Corners of the Land, was named Poetry Book of the Year at the 2012 3:AM Awards and was a Scotsman Book of the Year.
My writing has appeared in publications including The Times, The Quietus, Guardian, Morning Star, and Caught by the River, and my poems have featured in various anthologies in the US and UK including Untitled One: Neu! Reekie! (Birlinn) and Elliott & Thompson's Spring anthology.
BA Hons, Creative Writing, University of Greenwich
MA, Creative Writing, University of Manchester
PhD, Creative Writing, University of Huddersfield
I have worked with publishers including Picador and Faber Social and smaller independents including Tangerine Press and Blackheath Books.
I was fiction editor at Flux Magazine for three years and also acted as assistant poetry editor at Brand Magazine. In 2008 I secured a coveted graduate internship post at Harper Collins as part of their Avatar digital publishing scheme.
My professional background is in copywriting, public relations and marketing. I have freelanced for organisations and companies including the Henry Moore Institute, Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle, East Street Arts, John Lewis, Nike and Leeds City Council.
Throughout 2016/17 I will be teaching poetry and fiction on the Language and Technique and Remake/Remodel units at Manchester Writing School.
My areas of expertise include the playwright Andrea Dunbar, cultural representations of Northern England, the non-fiction novel, and 20th Century British and American Poetry.
Black Teeth and a Briliant Smile (Wrecking Ball Press, 2017)
Dark Corners of the Land (Blackheath Books, 2012)
Cigarettes in Bed (Blackheath Books, 2009)
Some Things are Better Left Unsaid (Blackheath Books, 2006)
As Editor:
Heathcliff Adrift, Benjamin Myers (New Writing North, 2015)
Sweet is the Taste of Tears, Akiko Yosano (Tangerine Press, 2014)
In 2014 I was a guest lecturer at the University of Huddersfield’s Punks, Pigs and Prawn Cocktails module for third year Modern British History students and presented new research on Andrea Dunbar, post-industrial Bradford and the winter of discontent. I also appeared as a speaker at the Great Writing Conference (Imperial College London) discussing concepts around fictional biography, the non-fiction novel and the literature of fact.
I presented a paper, 'Genius of the Slums: Andrea Dunbar in Print' at the AHRC-funded Grim up North? symposium at Leeds Library in 2016 and will appear at the Women, Feminism, Class & the Arts Symposium at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford this summer.
Arts Council England & British Council, Artists' International Development Fund for At the Harbour Gates (2016).
Arts Council England, Grants for the Arts Award for Beyond the Silver Pit (2015).
PhD scholarship, University of Huddersfield.
Beyond the Silver Pit and The Humber Star. Commissioned projects for John Grant's North Atlantic Flux: Sounds From Smoky Bay which celebrated the heritage of Hessle Rd's fishing community in the 19th century. Both poems were set to a score by Icelandic composer Halldor Smarason and performed live at Jubilee Church with Sinfonia UK Collective as part of Hull City of Culture.
I was writer-in-residence at Aberdeen Spectra Festival in 2017 and worked with photographer Andrew Brooks on Secret Cities, a collaboration that explored the hidden spaces and secret stories of the city.
Writer and Associate Producer for Leeds Inspired (Leeds City Council) 2014 - present. Currently commissioned to write a series of features on Leeds Chapeltown Carnival's 50th anniversary celebrations.
Panel member on BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking with playwright Esther Wilson, crime-writer David Mark and Director Alan Lane. Debate on Hull's links with the wider world and other port cities including Liverpool. Recorded with an audience at Hull Truck Theatre as part of Radio 3's Uproot festival for Hull 2017.
Recipient of the 2016 K Blundell Award for Fiction (Society of Authors)
Longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2017