About/Contact

I review books written by womxn – old and new, literary and commercial, fiction and non-fiction with the occasional YA title – and I interview womxn writers. You can find my YouTube channel here.

My preferences lean towards literary fiction although I try and read as broadly as possible. I’m particularly concerned with covering translated fiction, working class fiction, books by Black, indigenous and womxn of colour and LGBTQ+ womxn and non-binary people.

I’ll read pretty much anything set in New York, while my PhD interests include circus and sideshow fiction, magic realism, updated/modern fairytales, working class stories and feminist literature (fiction and non-fiction).

Unfortunately, I’m not a fan of child narrators  (under 12s). (My Name Is Leon by Kit de Waal is a notable exception.)

I wrote about the rationale behind the blog here.

I’m currently doing a PhD in Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University and have a story in The Book of Sheffield published by Comma Press. I’ve also been shortlisted for The White Review Prize and longlisted for Manchester Fiction Prize. I’ve written for the Pan Macmillan blog, Ozy, Fiction Uncovered, the Tilted Axis Press blog and been a contributor to the Waterstones’ blog. I’m the Digital Engagement Coordinator and Copywriter for Manchester Literature Festival and blogger-in-residence at Jersey Festival of Words. I’ve chaired events at Manchester Literature Festival, Jersey Festival of Words, Off the Shelf Festival and for Waterstones Gower Street and Waterstones Deansgate. In January 2018, I appeared on Radio 3’s Free Thinking to discuss the circus in literature as part of the Circus250 celebrations.

You can find me on Twitter and Facebook or email me thewritesofwoman [at] gmail.com