Staff profile

I am a fiction writer and academic, and am the Director of Creative Writing at Durham University. I completed my PhD research in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Sussex, where I researched the literary history of swooning (AHRC-sponsored). This inspired my first work of fiction, The Lost Art of Sinking (2015), an experimental novella about passing out.

My first novel, Sealed (2017), was a work of eco-horror. My second novel, Exit Management (2020), moves between contemporary Britain and 1940s Budapest as was described by the Guardian as a "timely and original dissection of class and desperation in Brexit London". My most recent novel, raw content (2025), explores post-partum OCD and the possibilities (and limitations) of recovery narratives. 

My short story collection, Animals at Night (2022), includes 'Sour Hall', originally commissioned by Audible Originals and Virago as part of the Hag project, which invited contemporary female writers to re-tell regional folktales. 'Sour Hall' is a re-imagining of the Yorkshire tale of the boggart, and has since been adapted into an audio drama series. 

My academic research has focussed on literary depictions of the body in relation to the environment, and the contemporary novel. My monograph, Swoon: A Poetics of Passing Out, was published by Manchester University Press in 2021. I have recently published criticism on: contemporary fragmentary writing; glitchy novels and postpartum OCD; Kafka's The Trial; Anthropocene fiction and anti-anthroporphism. I have written non-fiction pieces for the New York Times, The Guardian, BBC Radio 3 and Propsect Magazine. 

I read English at the University of Cambridge and completed an MA and PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Sussex. I previously taught in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Sussex and at York St John University, where I was Subject Director for Creative Writing.

My research interests are in: contemporary fiction and creative-writing practice; eco-theory and environmental writing; gender and representation; writing/publishing in the North of England. I welcome PhD applications in these areas. I am an affiliate of the Institute of Medical Humanities and have supervised practice-based research projects on: depictions of post-partum psychosis; the Newcastle witch trials; depictions of the witch in contemporary Indian narratives; anthropomorphism and eco-narratology. 

• Editorial roles: Appointed to the Editorial Board of the Oxford Literary Review; appointed to the Editorial Board for Spectres, Hauntings and Horrors series (Bloomsbury); appointed editorial board member for Short Fiction in Theory & Practice; peer review for Textual Practice and Modern Fiction Studies
• Literary prizes: Edge Hill Short Story Reader's Choice Award for an individual story ('Sour Hall') (2024); shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Award (Animals at Night) (2024); shortlisted for the Not the Booker Award (Sealed) (2020); selected for Guardian Books of Year (Exit Management) (2020); longlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award ('Cluster') (2018); longlisted for the Galley Beggars Short Story Prize ('Cluster') (2018); selected as a Guardian Fresh Voice: Writers to Read Now (2018); selected for White Review Books of the Year (2017) (Sealed); selected for New Writing North's Read Regional Campaign (The Lost Art of Sinking) (2017); Winner of the Saboteur Award for Best Novella (The Lost Art of Sinking
• External examination: External examiner for PhDs at: City University (2025), the Universities of Sussex (2025), Leeds (2023), Glasgow (2023), Loughborough (2022), East Anglia (2022), Lincoln (2022), Leicester (2022), Royal Holloway (2022), Leeds Beckett (2022), Huddersfield (2019). External examiner for the MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London (2021-2025) External examiner for the MA in Creative Writing at Birmingham University (2019-22) External examiner for the MA in Crime Fiction at UEA (2016-2019)
• Selected talks and event chairing: Keynote talks and readings at: Spring Haunts (2026); Hey! Festival (2025); York Literature Festival (2025); The Cartography of the Political Novel in Europe, Brighton University (2025); Lincoln Book Festival (2025); UEA Festival of Literature (2025); Primadonna Festival (2024); Berlin Climate Fiction Conference (2021) Invited chair for: Stu Hennigan at the York Literary Festival (2026); Jonathan Coe at the Durham Book Festival (2025); Gráinne O'Hare at Collected, Durham (2025); Lauren Elkin at Collected, Durham (2024); Sinéad Gleeson and Irenosen Okojie at Primadonna Festival (2024); Andrew McMillan and Tawseef Khan at the Durham Book Festival (2024); Cecile Pin at the Durham Book Festival (2023); Jessica Andrews and Natasha Brown at the Durham Book Festival (2022); Jenn Ashworth and Kylie Whitehead at Blackwell's Manchester (2021)
• Prize judging and mentorship: Mentor for LEAP training programme at the University of Cambridge (2026); mentor for New Writing North Writers' Awards (2024 and 2020); judge for Ignite Fellowships (Scottish Book Trust) (2024); judge for Aesthetica Short Fiction Prize (2024 and 2022); judge for inaugural Wild Writing Prize (2021); judge for the Sid Chaplin Award for working-class writing (2020); judge for New Writing North's Young Writers Award (2020)