Jessica Andrews

Overview

Jessica writes fiction and non-fiction. Her work explores intersections of social class and gender in relation to the body and representations of these within experimental writing. She is also interested in the fluid formal boundaries between fiction, memory and truth and how this relates to first-person authorship.

Her debut novel, Saltwater, explores the search for identity within post-industrial, working-class communities. It questions isolation, disconnection and belonging through the lens of a mother daughter relationship. It was published by Sceptre in 2019 and won the Portico Prize, known as, 'the Booker of the North' in 2020.

Her second novel, Milk Teeth explores the relationship between gender, class and desire, with a particular focus on the body. It was published by Sceptre in 2022 and shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Encore Award in 2023.

Her work is translated into seven languages and she is also a Contributing Editor at ELLE magazine. She writes for the Guardian, the Independent, BBC Radio 4 and the Architectural Review, among many others. Her work has been featured on BBC Front Row and BBC Woman's Hour and she has given guest lectures at the University of Sheffield, the University of Liverpool, the University of Kent, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and Texas State University, among others.

She was named on the ELLE list celebrating influential people in 2020, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction Futures for writers under the age of 35 in 2022 and longlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award in 2022. She co-runs literary and arts magazine, The Grapevine and co-presents literary podcast, Tender Buttons, featuring guests such as Max Porter, Preti Taneja, Lola Olufemi, Isabel Waidner, Travis Alabanza and Bhanu Kapil.

She is currently completing a PhD on representations of working-class women's bodies within contemporary literature through innovative literary forms.

Qualifications

• MA in Creative Writing, University of Kent, United Kingdom, Sep 2014 – Aug 2015
• BA in English Literature and Language, King's College London, United Kingdom, Sep 2010 – Aug 2013

Employment

• Contributing Editor, ELLE Magazine, Oct 2022 – present
• Lecturer in Creative Writing, City, University of London, Sep 2022 – present
• Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing, University of Roehampton, Sep 2021 – Aug 2022

Publications by category