My writing

I know it's a cliché, but I have always been a writer. My earliest career ambition was to be able to touch type like my primary school secretary Mrs. Berry, and as soon as we had a computer at home I penned a dozen Jacqueline Wilson-esque novels that I printed out and forced onto my parents, teachers and family friends.
 

Nowadays my work is far less plagiarised and, thankfully, a bit more successful. I like to write about family, identity and the concept of 'home', and often blur the lines between poetry and prose.

 

Just before the pandemic I wrote a memoir called Bridie, Darling about my relationship with my amazing dad Patrick, who died in 2018. Then, in early 2023, I received DYCP funding from the Arts Council to work on translating some of my experiences into fiction, specifically for a young adult audience. The opening to this new, experimental manuscript - which is currently called Stone Galaxies - won me the Northern Debut Awards for YA fiction at the Northern Writers Awards in June of this year.

​

My hope is to use the prize money and the mentoring the Northern Writers Awards offers to finish this manuscript by Christmas and start querying agents in early 2024.

​

​

Writing Commissions

I have been lucky enough to be commissioned to write poems and short stories for a number of different organisations, including Changing Relations, Curious Arts, Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums and Gateshead Council. I have also put together writing programmes for places such as Kielder Observatory, and I run the 150-member online creative writing group for the charity Let's Talk About Loss.

​

You can find out more about these specific projects - and my creative process - on my portfolio page.

​