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Senior Lecturer, Creative Writing, Queen's University Belfast

I was appointed Lecturer in Creative Writing at Queen's in 2015 and I teach creative writing across both undergraduate and postgraduate curricula with special focus on prose fiction and non-fiction. Apart from fiction, my research interests include writing about place, history and memoir. I am also a map-maker and publish academically on the topic of cartography. I hold an MA in Art History, an MPhil in Geography and a PhD in Creative Writing.

To date, I have published genre fiction in the form of three young adult novels, The Badness of Ballydog, Lost Dogs and Deep Deep Down (Simon & Schuster, 2010 and 2011). The Badness of Ballydog was nominated for the UK Literary Association Children’s Book Award and the Lincolnshire Young Reader’s Award.

The Rule of the Land: Walking Ireland’s Border (Faber & Faber, 2017) is my most recent book. It was widely and positively reviewed and has gained significant media attention, including selection as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week during March 2017. I am a frequent contributor to the press, the BBC and to other newspapers and broadcasters in Europe and beyond.

Experience

  • –present
    Senior lecturer, creative writing, Queen's University Belfast