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Jessica Andrews (writer)

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Jessica Andrews
Born
Jessica Charlotte Andrews

1992
Sunderland, England
Alma mater
Years active2016–present
Websitewww.jessica-andrews.com

Jessica Charlotte Andrews (born 1992) is an English author, academic, and editor. Her debut novel Saltwater (2019) won the Portico Prize. This was followed by Milk Teeth (2022). Her writing covers topics such as class, gender, mother–daughter relationships, and body image.[1]

In addition, Andrews is an Elle contributing editor and lectures at City, University of London.

Early life

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Andrews was born to a working-class family in Sunderland and attended St Robert of Newminster Catholic School.[2] The first in her family to go to university,[3] Andrews graduated with a bachelor's degree in English literature and language from King's College London in 2013 and a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Kent in 2015,[4] including a term studying in Paris.[5][6]

Career

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In 2017 when Andrews was 25, Sceptre (a Hodder & Stoughton imprint) won a four-way auction to publish her debut novel Saltwater in spring 2019.[7] The novel is heavily based on Andrews' own experiences as a working class northern woman who moved to London for university and then into her late grandfather's home in Donegal, Ireland. She wrote the novel while living there.[8] Andrews chose to write it as fiction rather than a memoir because she wanted "to distance myself from the story" and felt "there's a lot more freedom in fiction... With fiction, you can take an image or symbol further".[9]

Saltwater won the 2020 Portico Prize, given to novels that best evoke "the spirit of the North".[10] Andrews was also shortlisted for the 2022 Good Housekeeping Women's Prize for Fiction Futures Award.[11]

Andrews was an associate lecturer at the University of Roehampton in 2021 before joining City, University of London as a lecturer in creative writing in 2022. That same year, she became a contributing editor of the magazine Elle.[4] Andrews hosts the literary podcast Tender Buttons with Jack Young for Storysmith, a bookshop in Bristol.[12]

For her second novel Milk Teeth, released in 2022, Andrews reunited with her first publisher Sceptre.[13][14] The novel, centred around a whirlwind romance and body image, is more fictional that Saltwater, but still rooted in emotional truths.[15][16] Milk Teeth was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's 2023 Encore Award.[17]

In 2024, Andrews adapted Rose Glass' 2019 psychological horror film Saint Maud with theatre director Jack McNamara for the Live Theatre Company.[18]

Bibliography

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Novels

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  • Saltwater (2019)
  • Milk Teeth (2022)

Short fiction

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  • "The Skin is the Largest Organ" in Somesuch Stories (2017)
  • "A Bright Young Thing" in Somesuch Stories #3 (2017)
  • "The Fishmonger" in At the Table (2018)
  • "Wild Cat" in Soho House Magazine (2019)
  • "My Sister was a Dancer" (2019) for BBC Radio 4
  • "Rebel Woman of Sunderland" (2020), collaboration with Kathryn Robertson and Sunderland Culture
  • "Blood Brothers" in The Book of Newcastle (2020)
  • "The End of the Pier" in At the Table Almanac (2020)
  • "Horses" in Somesuch Stories #6 (2022)
  • "Woman seeks room in London" in Towards Abundance: The Delightful Paradoxes of Gender (2023) by The Architectural Review
  • "It Felt Like Home" in Somesuch Stories #7 (2023)

Select essays

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  • "White Cardboard Boxes" in Somesuch Stories (2018)
  • "Pleasures of... April" in Caught by the Rivers (2019)
  • "The shifting shape of language" (2020) for the Wellcome Collection

Plays

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  • Saint Maud (2024)

References

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  1. ^ "Interview with Jessica Andrews". Famous Writing Routines. 1 March 2023. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  2. ^ Wheeler, Katy (22 July 2022). "Award-winning Wearside author Jessica Andrews to give talk as part of Sunderland Literature Festival". Sunderland Echo. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  3. ^ Andrews, Jessica (12 September 2022). "The Line Of Beauty". Elle. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  4. ^ a b "Jessica Andrews - Lecturer in Creative Writing (Education & Research)". City, University of London. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  5. ^ "Graduate Profile: Novelist & Writer Jessica Andrews". University of Kent. 19 April 2024. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  6. ^ Andrews, Jessica (2020-04-07). "What My Father's Alcoholism And My Parents' Divorce Taught Me About Learning To Love After Heartbreak". Elle. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
  7. ^ Cowdry, Katherine (6 October 2017). "Sceptre wins 25 year-old's literary debut in four-way auction". The Bookseller. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  8. ^ "Jessica Andrews: 'Writing a novel is about perseverance'". Women's Prize. 12 March 2024. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  9. ^ Sethi, Anita. "Jessica Andrews: 'I didn't feel like I deserved to speak'". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  10. ^ Youngs, Ian (23 January 2020). "Jessica Andrews wins Portico Prize for novel about female 'poetry and power'". BBC News. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  11. ^ Finney, Joanne (30 December 2021). "Meet our Futures finalists: Jessica Andrews". Good Housekeeping. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  12. ^ "Tender Buttons". Storysmith Books. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  13. ^ Nathan, Lucy (4 November 2021). "Sceptre signs a second novel by Jessica Andrews". Book Brunch. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  14. ^ Wood, Heloise (4 November 2021). "Second 'unforgettable' Andrews novel snared by Sceptre". The Bookseller. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  15. ^ Waite, Thom (20 July 2022). "Jessica Andrews' Sensual Second Novel Explores the Politics of Desire". AnOther Magazine. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  16. ^ Goldsbrough, Susie (6 August 2022). "Milk Teeth by Jessica Andrews review — hip bones, heroin chic and the food of love". The Times. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  17. ^ "Encore Award 2023 Shortlist Announced". Royal Society of Literature. 1 July 2023. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  18. ^ Whetstone, David (13 September 2024). "Saint Maud set to unsettle". Cultured North East. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
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