I work with words in all their forms, solo and with collaborators, via publishing, lyrical essays, film, poetry, making books, spoken word, middle grade novels, in galleries, in theatres and in the community. Some people say I’m a word-artist – I say I do stuff with words. These are some words examples.
I am represented by Molly Ker Hawn at The Bent Agency.
The Secret of Haven Point
Publishing February 2022 from Puffin books, part of Penguin Random House UK, THE SECRET OF HAVEN POINT is a lyrical voice-led middle grade novel set on the north east coast, in a lighthouse, with a captain with a kitten in his beard, and a gang of disabled friends having a cracking adventure. As yet untitled, book two will follow in early 2023.
You can read more about it here in the Bookseller announcement.
This adventure began when I won 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:
The Puffin Book of Big Dreams
I was commissioned to write a story for Puffin’s 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.
Published 3rd September 2020, you can 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. You can read it here.
The work was 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. You can read all the work, listen to the podcasts and read their transcripts here.
Ink Flows
Ink Flows is 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.
Arts Professional
I wrote an article for Arts Professional based on the fact that 25% of people in the North East are disabled, and from the point of view of freelancers. You can read it here.
Disabled freelancers can teach the sector a lot about how to overcome limitations to make and adapt work in new and exciting ways, so look for them and use them…and pay them.
FIELD Notes
This publication to which I contribute came into being as a result of a residency held in July 2020.
You can buy a copy, or read it online for free, here.
Best British and Irish Flash Fiction
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.
Accessibility
Luxi ltd. commissioned me, with support from Arts Council England’s emergency recovery package, to write an article about access as kindness. It focuses on how online meetings leave a huge part of the population behind, and are inaccessible for numerous reasons, is a provocation to do better, and how we can begin to do so. Please read, think, do. You can read ‘The Inaccessibility of the Future (or, What To Do When You Just Can’t Zoom)’, here.
Chemistry
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.
Crap-Bag Days
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
Poetry
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)
Creative Non-Fiction
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.
Turning limitations into possibilities – commissioned feature article for Arts Professional.
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 2019. 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.
