Writing

I am represented by Molly Ker Hawn at The Bent Agency.

My voice-led adventure novel for upper middle grade readers entitled THE WRECKLINGS earned me a coveted spot as one of 10 mentees out of over 1700 applicants on Penguin RHUK’s WriteNow programme. You can read more about it here:

I was commissioned to write a story for PRHUK’s Puffin 80th birthday anthology. Look at the list of authors and illustrators – this is the stuff dreams are made of! My story, THE GANG, is wonderfully illustrated by the incredible Elisa Paganelli.

Bright yellow design, book cover – 80 The Puffin Book of Big Dreams – Stories to Spark your Imagination

Bright yellow design – 4 columns of names of authors and illustrators, mine is in the middle

Bright yellow design – Hooray, It’s Puffin’s Birthday

Publishing 3rd September 2020, you can pre-order the book and find out more about the project HERE.

New Narratives for the North East

Fifteen writers have been commissioned to create new work about the North East in an ambitious project from New Writing North and the North East Culture Partnership.

My commission is a collision of poetry, verbatim text from interviews I’ve conducted, lyrical essay and manifesto looking at disability arts and crip culture in the North East, how we do not take up enough cultural space, and linking this to an ambitious form based on a river cycle.

The work will be presented in a variety of forms from autumn 2020, including as essays, films, podcast episodes, and as part of a special digitally-focused Durham Book Festival, before being collected in an anthology to be published in 2021.

Here you can read more about the work, and the other commissioned writers.

I was awarded the 2019 Cove Park Early Career Residency for Literature.

INK FLOWS, the poetry collection I wrote about my time as Poet-in-Residence for Crossing the Tees Book Festival, illustrated by the incredible Illustrator-in-Residence Sara Gibbeson, is available now from Teesside libraries, Book Corner in Saltburn and 6e Publishing.

Front cover of INK FLOWS

A poem about chairs with one of Sara’s illustrations

I have a coveted place on the #BIFFY 50 List celebrating the Best British and Irish Flash Fiction 2018-2019 for my piece SECOND BEST ROOM.

photo description: on a blue background with different coloured pills there is the following text: and I know that temptation eats resolve like stone beats scissors – And I Know by Lisette Auton CFLA18 Winner

photo description: The twelve finalists in our finest outfits standing grouped together smiling at the camera. I am one of them. There are also two members of the CF team, Lemn Sissay and Kaerry Hudson.

photo description: a still shot of a tv screen with the Creative Future Literary Awards logo and the text – Lisette Auton And I Know Bronze Poetry

photo description: front cover of the book Chemistry lying on my multi coloured rug

I won a Creative Future Literary Award 2018 for my poem entitled And I Know, which is published in the anthology Chemistry, which is available to buy here. The award was presented at the London Literary Festival at Southbank Centre by Lemn Sissay.

Accessibility – pause the film and press the first little rectangle on the bottom right hand side for subtitles/closed captions. 

I was commissioned to write a lyrical essay, Crap-Bag Days, by Carmen Marcus, author of How Saints Die which is long-listed for the Desmond Elliott Prize. You can read it here on the fabulous website The Book of Godless Verse. Carmen says about my writing:

Today’s #DailyMess is brought to you by the brilliant Lisette Auton. This is a summons to accept we can’t always be smashing it without breaking ourselves. Here is an intimate snap shot of life outside the perfect days. Let it break and mend you x

The following are links to a few examples of my poetry online:

Second Best Room – commissioned poem for Visual Verse

Surrender and Go To War and Fight For Me – published at I am Not a Silent Poet

The Fallacy of Saving – published in Snakeskin 233

We Rule – published in Issue 3: Locations of DNA Magazine (p.34)

These articles are examples of my creative non-fiction:

What’s in a name? – Opinion Piece

Diverse – Finding my Tribe – Review

Karen Sheader – The Need to be Creative – Interview

Kev Howard – A Photo Essay – Showcase

Lisette Auton & Vici Wreford-Sinnott in Conversation – Is Emerging even a Thing? – Interview

Secret Diary of a Fledgling Freelancer – commissioned article for development agency, New Writing North

Disconsortia – A Lyrical Essay – commissioned piece as Writer in Residence for Disconsortia – part poem, part essay, part transcript.

Editor

I was appointed as Guest Editor for Disability Arts Online from December 2018 – February 2019. I wrote seven pieces including interviews, an opinion piece, reviews and showcases, and commissioned a further 12 articles which were published in 4 newsletters in a takeover in February 2018. I also conducted an Instagram takeover and hosted a live Twitter debate. The theme for the editorship was Northern Emerging Disabled Artists – to give this region, and other artists in my position, a platform to showcase their unbelievable talent. This is the link to the project page with all the articles I wrote and commissioned.