Writer, performer, optimist, vegan, rabbit enthusiast, PhD student. I write strange stories about strange things for strange people and read them out loud on various stages in Manchester and beyond. My tales tend to be short, sharp, and weird, and more than a little unsettling. My favourite authors include John Wyndham, Ursula Le Guin, JG Ballard, China Mieville, Alan Garner, Hilary Mantel and Iain (M) Banks.
My fiction has been published in numerous places including Ambit, Black Static, BFS Horizons, Structo, Shooter, STORGY, The Alarmist and volume one of The Shadow Booth. You can find free links to lots of my fiction on the stories page on my website.
I have three collections of flash fictions: Spiderseed (Sleepy House Press, 2016), Threshold (Gumbo Press, 2013) & my twisted Xmas collection Merry Gentlemen (self published, 2014). I am working on a collection of animal-themed full-length short stories and a super-exciting but fidgety beast of a novel.
I've performed my fiction with excessive theatricality at various events and locations. I've performed twice at Kendal Calling, twice at Bluedot Festival, once at an apocalyptic arts event in Preston Bus Station, and countless times at Manchester's premier spoken word evening Bad Language. I'll usually say yes to a spoken word opportunity so if you'd like me to perform, just get in touch.
In 2011 I won the 'Best Blog' award for my film review blog Screen150 (now defunct, sadly) and in 2012 I came joint first on the Lancashire Writing Hub's National Flash Fiction competition with my story 'The Haunter'. My story 'From the Deepest Depths' won the Live at LICA Museum of Water competition in 2015. In May 2016, my collection Spiderseed claimed the runner-up spot in the 'Best Short Story Collection' category at the 2016 Saboteur Awards. In 2018 I was long-listed for the STORGY Shallow Creek competition for my sonnet-based horror story 'Pentameter'.
In September 2016 I began a Creative Writing PhD at the University of Manchester, researching the connections between autism and science fiction while writing a novel about autism and ghosts. Find out more here.
I live in the wonderful city of Manchester with one human, two rabbits and a fluctuating number guinea pigs.