WRITING, RESIDENCIES AND PRIZES
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The Astley Prize - Nairn Book & Arts Festival 2025
If you look closely, you can see white horses running
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I won 2nd place in the 2025 Astley Prize with this short story that presents themes of working-class childhood, dysfunctional families, peer-pressure and grief. ​
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Flash 500
3rd prize 2026. Described by judge Ingrid Jendrzejewski as "a blisteringly effective use of both the single breathless paragraph and the use of a list as a narrative juggernaut" this flash presents a woman's experience of domestic violence.​
2nd prize 2024. This flash is set against the backdrop of the death of Princess Diana and follows two young women taking risks of their own as they party recklessly around the grieving city of London.
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I won the Bath Flash Fiction Award in 2025 with this short piece that juxtaposes the violent protests in LA with the story of a child taking their first steps, while a parent looks away.
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No Room for Love
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In this flash - short listed for the BFFA in 2024 - a single woman is haunted by ghosts of men from famous films. They seem to hold her back from finding true love. Published in The Constancy of Wood Pigeons anthology
In Case the Sky Falls In​
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An aunt wrangles her way out of taking her niece on a trip to Naples, arguing that it is likely they will end up ash in the style of previous residents of Pompeii. Published in The Weather with You anthology (2023)
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This flash fiction was commended in the October 2020 Bath Flash Fiction Award. Judge Nod Ghosh described it as 'brief and surreal with beautiful word choices'. Published in the Restore to Factory Settings anthology
How to Write
I originally wrote the poem 'How to Write' for a WriteClub open mic party in Summer 2019. It was featured on BBC Bristol Upload in April 2020 with Adam Crowther and I was interviewed by him about the online workshops I offer through WriteClub.
The Truth and Scarlett Jones
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I am the ocean and you are the shore
'The Truth and Scarlett Jones' is a short piece of fiction about a young girl from an abusive family finding a mentor in the rebellious and fabulous Scarlett Jones, and was published as part of National Flash Fiction Day's Flash Flood 2020.
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'I am the ocean and you are the shore' is a flash fiction about love and fear and featured in the 2019 Flash Flood.​
Writing for My Life
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My poem 'Writing for My Life', about how I have used writing and journalling as a tool for mental wellbeing, won first prize in the 2020 Lapidus International Words in Performance Spoken Word competition.
Choosing the Silence
Project Development Lab
Choosing the Silence was a five day writing and development residency funded by National Theatre Wales that took place on the Welsh island Llanddwyn where I worked with fellow writers, Samantha O'Rourke and Emily Vanderploeg in exploring themes of isolation and patriarchy through the story of Dwynwen - the Welsh patron saint of love.
One of 20 emerging Welsh writers
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Writers at Work is a long-term professional development strategy to nurture Welsh talent writing in both languages. It runs during the 11 days of Hay Festival Wales. The project gives access to the unique gathering of the literary world at this time and exploits the publishing and creative writing expertise on offer for the direct benefit of professional writers in Wales. I was selected to join the Writers at Work cohort in 2018 and continue to be part of this excellent programme.
Journey Beyond
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During a five-day residency at theme park Alton Towers with writers and facilitators from The Liminal Residency group, I produced a series of linked flash fiction that explored a relationship that began beneath a rollercoaster and went on to fall apart. My collection was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and our collected work was published as a pamphlet 'Journey Beyond' which you can order via The Liminal Residency website.
Dead and Buried
'Dead and Buried', a one (long) sentence piece of flash fiction, was longlisted for the Reflex Flash Fiction competition and features in the Barely Casting a Shadow anthology.
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Co-editor and writer
Have Your Cake
Not her child, not mine
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The Trick of Finding Your Own Feet
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When writer Tino Prinzi heard my flash 'Have Your Cake' at an anthology launch in Bath, he invited me to co-edit the 2018 National Flash Fiction Day anthology. My flash fiction piece - a fast paced jaunt from a cake through a whole world of resentments within a relationship - featured in the collection. You can order a copy of Ripening here.
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In 2019 my flash fiction 'Not her child, not mine' was one of 50 pieces selected for the anthology 'And We Pass Through', and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
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I was commissioned to write a piece for the 'magic' themed 2021 anthology and produced a story about a woman who is sawn in half, 'The Trick of Finding Your Own Feet'.
When the Mountain Swallowed the Morning
My novel When the Mountain Swallowed the Morning, a coming-of-age story set in South Wales, was selected by judges Dr Jane Feaver, senior lecturer in creative writing at Exeter University, Aki Schilz, director of The Literary Consultancy, and Euan Thorneycroft of A M Heath Literary Agents and awarded runner-up prize in The Peggy Chapman-Andrews First Novel Award.
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The manuscript was also longlisted for the Mslexia New Novel award, short-listed for the Janklow & Nesbitt award and won the Australasian Association of Writing Programs prize.
Who said the river was red?
'Who said the river was red?' is a story about childhood and danger. It deals with otherness and looks at the brutality that children can sometimes inflict upon those who don't 'fit in'. The story won the local author prize in the Bath Short Story Award.
Sparrow and Finch
When the Mountain Swallowed the Morning
My short story 'Sparrow and Finch' featured as in the themed writing section of Mslexia magazine, along with an interview about how I had found inspiration for the story.
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When the Mountain Swallowed the Morning was longlisted for the Mslexia New Novel award.
Have Your Cake (shortlisted)
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'Have your cake' was shortlisted for the 2016 competition by judge and flash fiction writer Meg Pokrass and features in the Bath Flash Fiction Award anthology The lobsters run free.
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Cold Hands
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Even the cheese sandwich is a dance
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Actions are another man's treasure
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Because the internet will never die
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Flash fictions that I have written during workshops at various Flash Fiction Festivals appear in the annual anthologies.
'Even the Cheese Sandwich is a Dance' also featured in Project Calm Magazine alongside an article by Flash Fiction Festival organiser, Jude Higgins.