For 6+ years, I’ve been working on a novel called UNDERDOGS. It's about a father, a son & the gamble of their lives. I’m delighted to say that UNDERDOGS will be published by JM Originals @johnmurrays.bsky.social on 2 July 2026! You can read the opening on p. 33: www.hachette.co.uk/wp-content/u...

Spending the Bank Holiday as I've spent the past week or so: paying very close attention to the fine details of a project that means a lot to me, & feeling very grateful towards all those who are supporting it... #amwriting #amediting

📷 Jean Gaumy

Clay Lane Furnaces, South Bank, Middlesbrough, 1981, by Graham Smith.

So impressed by @mariegardiner.bsky.social's 'Changing Landscapes' zine, which brightened my weekend when it arrived & now sits on my shelves for inspiration! With a beautiful colour palette and evocative images, it's a zine I'm already looking forward to returning to...

"I have learned what is safe. What makes assumptions vanish:" it's been a long time since I read a piece that resonated with me as strongly as Matt Taylor's 'Tracksuits and Me'. It spoke to me on too many levels to sum up in one post, but it's brilliant to see writing like this commissioned.

So pleased to have reached the 20,000 word mark of a new project. Lots of exploratory work around character & setting in there, so I’d be surprised if 5,000 appear in the polished draft – but the thought & the spirit behind those words will underpin the whole piece. #amwriting

'The watcher' by Yorkshire born printmaker Hester Cox #WomensArt

"The decision to use a Northern dialect could mean the work itself is then subject to the stereotypes about Northerners being inferior, uncultured & uneducated": a powerful article from @jenbowden12.bsky.social on barriers which Northern writers (particularly dialect writers) face within publishing.

One week to go until GOBBY LASS at Durham Fringe! If you like spoken word and stand-up poetry, come along durhamfringe.co.uk/events/gobby...

Willenhall Writers have undertaken a commission as part of Creative Black Country’s Creative Communities project. www.youtube.com/@WillenhallWritersGroup Stop by and have a look. You’ll find poems, stories, memoir, glorious pictures of Willenhall, and even a song! Happy Black Country Day!

When I started writing seriously, I was given a beautiful pen for my birthday. I put the pen in my desk drawer & said that I wouldn't use it til I reached a certain writing milestone. Yesterday I met that milestone, & got to use that pen. It felt like writing with pure sunshine… #amwriting

Really enjoyed watching last night's livestream of the #NorthernWritersAwards 2025 & celebrating its talented awardees. Over the moon to see the powerhouse that is Lizzie Lovejoy win the Sid Chaplin Award! Congratulations everyone - you're in for such a special writing time!

There's something very beautiful about editing a project that you've been working on for years. Looking back not just at the writer you were at the beginning, but the person too; reflecting on how you & the manuscript have grown... #amediting

I'm chuffed that Emma Morgan's new novel BEGGARS WOULD RIDE @northodoxpress.bsky.social is proving so popular! Emma is part of my Northern Writers' Awards Peer Group & is an incredibly talented, astute & generous writer. Really looking forward to reading this book!

Over the past few days, I’ve appreciated having time to not just stop & look at the flowers, but at my writing career. The stories I’ve told, the ones I’m telling, & the ones I need to tell. Where to concentrate my energy so that those seeds of ideas grow into golden blooms...

Celebrate Carers Week with an online writing retreat by University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education Centre for Creative Writing this Sunday. We'll be writing, reflecting, and discussing what we write. Free for carers. #writing #community #carer bit.ly/3HD5P53

Enjoyed Ep 1 of @clairemalcolm.bsky.social & Richard Benson's 'The Working-Class Library' podcast. It was fascinating to listen to Professor Simon James discuss George's Gissing's 'The New Grub Street'. Looking forward to reading it - & listening to more episodes! open.spotify.com/episode/3gjN...

During a Bank Holiday Monday sort-out, it was lovely to be reminded of these beautiful photos of greyhound racing, & the inspiration they've given me as I work on my flapping novel. They were posted to me without details of the photographer, but I wish I knew who they were so I could thank them!

View from Winding Tower, by Lesley Young, b.1942 (Salford Museum & Art Gallery). #WomensArt #NorthernArt

Produced by the MA Museum and Artefact students, a new exhibition will be opening on June 14th in Palace Green Library. Stop in to learn more about folklore from historic County Durham as told through famous stories like the Lambton Wyrm! #beastsandlegends #studentexhibition

Really pleased to have finished a round of edits on a project which means a lot to me. Loved working with notes to improve the story as well as my craft! #amwriting

International Workers' Day is a celebration of labourers and the working classes on 1 May. I chose that day to publish Common People, memoirs of working class lives from both well known and new writers. A privilege to work with them all. So proud of this. Link below. Please share :)

1st May marks 6 years since I became a published writer, with a memoir about flapping at Easington Greyhound Stadium. That piece has taken - and continues to take - me to writing places I never dreamt possible. Forever grateful to be one of @kitdewaal.bsky.social's #CommonPeople!

I'm elbow-deep in edits for a writing project that I've been working on for a very long time; one very close to my heart. Really enjoying working through the notes I've been given, strengthening the story - & using the nice pens! Edited in longhand, as it was written #amediting

‘Coal-Searcher Going Home to Jarrow’ in 1937 by Bill Brandt. He considered this to be the best photograph of that series.

In an infringement of copyright & a total disregard for my livelihood, my academic & creative publications have been taken without my consent to train AI. I stand with the @societyofauthors.bsky.social's Day of Action & have signed this petition to protect authors' rights: chng.it/hYknZdPyfq

This is a seminal moment: a Labour government cutting disability benefits. Not just continuing Tory levels. Cutting. This comes after a week of speculation, itself an act of cruelty by a government toying with people’s dignity. These cuts are disgraceful - and they will cost lives.

Please do support your local libraries. We're losing 40 libraries a year. They are such an essential part of our communities. Please, if you can, contact your MP or councillors before its too late. @librariesconnected.bsky.social @theguardian.com www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

So grateful for all of the support shown over the last 6 weeks for the #ACESupported COAL FACE Exhibition at Sunderland Museum. Thank you to our brilliant participants, funders, project partners, visitors & those who spread the word. Here's hoping there are more chances to hear those stories...

"It was clear the exhibition was of real importance to the local community": such a lovely write-up of the #ACESupported COAL FACE Exhibition & Study Day from @kathyhoyle.bsky.social, who was a wonderful Chair for my panel event! Could have talked dialect & working-class writing for hours...

Delighted to be chairing the brilliant study day event today! I’ll be talking to Dr Louise Powell about her wonderful poetry, mining communities and why preserving our North East heritage is so important.

Got a spare moment on your lunch break? What better way to spend it than by telling the Government to respect the rights of creators. Submit a response to their AI and copyright consultation. It doesn't need to take long. Guidance below 👇 www.alcs.co.uk/news/your-ri...

‘Who tells the story determines the story that gets told.’ In 2017 Common People, an anthology of working class memoir was our attempt to offer alternative narratives. So much yet to be done. See the work of @drdaveobrien.bsky.social

Big River, by north-east artist Anthony Caine. #NorthernArt

The face of Albert ‘Tot’ Holyoak, as photographed by #AndyMartin I’m a big fan of Andy’s work and I’m really looking forward to chatting with him at his and @louisepowell.bsky.social’s incredible world class show COAL FACE at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens on the morning of March 1st.

@martintype.bsky.social and @louisepowell.bsky.social have created the most wonderful exhibition combining outstanding photography and words to create CoalFace. It's on now at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens. Please go and see it if you can. Then see it again.

Happy to have finished work on a short piece for performance which pushes me out of my writerly comfort zone in terms of style & form. So important to keep stretching & developing... #amwriting

Happy to share Ep. 2 in the #ACESupported COAL FACE podcast series, which is now also available on SoundCloud as well as Spotify. I wrote & narrated this ep, in which 5 fascinating people explore what it was like to be a miner's wife - or go 'down the pit' yourself. soundcloud.com/user-2870213...

We decided to consciously forgo the traditional guestbook at the COAL FACE exhibition in lieu of a giant bar of Pit Head Baths soap. If you visit, please write a comment or two and hoy it into the soap. ☺️

We’re into week 2 of the COAL FACE exhibition, extremely proud of the work @louisepowell.bsky.social and me have produced together. Hot off the press today are these A3 handouts/posters, free to all visitors. Open today at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens until 4pm.

Easington terraces and streets #ThePhotoHour #Photography

Mik Critchlow’s dad on the day he was made redundant. For me this is one of his most poignant images, and captures the essence of the impact on miners when their livelihoods were taken away. It wasn’t just a job it was a way of life.

Having admired @kathyhoyle.bsky.social's writing for years now, I'm chuffed to be speaking to her for the 'Writing the Coal Face' Q&A at Sunderland Museum. This free event is on Saturday 1 March: www.sunderlandculture.org.uk/whats-on/coa...

Blown away by the new Coal Face exhibition. A monumental effort and incredible attention to detail from @martintype.bsky.social plus powerful words from @louisepowell.bsky.social. Go and see this show. Open now at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens www.sunderlandculture.org.uk/whats-on/coa...

How lovely to see the Coal Face exhibition and all the incredible work that @louisepowell.bsky.social and @martintype.bsky.social have put in. Also wonderful to see Tot, who I interviewed in 2016 for my first book, who is now 100(!) and still remembered me. Fantastic.

Excited to share Series 1, Ep. 1 of the #ACESupported COAL FACE Podcast, which I wrote & narrated. Edited beautifully by Nick John Williams, 'Ancestry' tells the tales of 5 people with Washington mining heritage. open.spotify.com/episode/0tWI...

Grateful to Gavin Engelbrecht for featuring the COAL FACE exhibition in @thenorthernecho.bsky.social today. It opens on 1 Feb & tells the stories of coalfield communities through the faces, words, hands & voices of our 60 wonderful participants: www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/2489229...

Had such a lovely time yesterday, recording dramatic readings of my work with actors Angela Rose & John McMahon. After 11 months away from any kind of performance / rehearsal, it was so nice to be reminded of how much I love that process. A true joy to be working with such talented creatives...