Dr Ellen Wiles

I am a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, and a novelist, multidisciplinary artist, and anthropologist. I am currently Artist-in-Residence at CREWW: the Centre for Resilience in Environment, Water and Waste, leading Storying Water: a project funded by South West Water, and I have developed an innovative body of environmental literary audio work through collaboration with scientists and external partners. Having previously worked as a barrister and as a musician, my multifaceted background informs my interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to arts-led research. I am a judge for the Society of Authors' Somerset Maugham Prize for writing by authors under thiry, and I am regularly invited to speak on podcasts and broadcasts and at events. My personal website is www.ellenwiles.com 

My latest novel, The Unexpected (HarperCollins, 2024) follows two female friends, Robin and Kessie, who find themselves platonically co-parenting a baby. As well as exploring themes of motherhood and friendship, it looks at the anthropology of kinship, and the evolution of family law to support so-called unconventional families. It has been acclaimed as 'Wonderful… all sorts of common assumptions about motherhood and family are turned on their head. It’s brilliant on friendship, identity, longing and resilience’ in the Daily Mail, and as 'A heartwarming depiction of female friendship as a bond stronger than any other' in The Times,

My multidisciplinary artist practice focuses on creating immersive environmental literary audio experiences engaging audiences with landscape, the more-than-human world and environmental change. My principal current research project, Storying Water, involves creating new audio and narrative work through collaboration with scientists and industry experts exploring the water system and its environmental resilience, and aims to engage diverse stakeholders in the water system. I have been commissioned by organisations including The National Trust, Double Elephant and the East Devon National Landscape. Riverlandia, an immersive fictional sound story created in response to a National Trust river restoration project, was shortlisted for a Creative Climate Award and I was invited to present it in New York. My fictional sound story, Paper Heron, commissioned as part of the National Heritage Lottery-funded Paper & Print project, was exhibited at Positive Light Projects and featured on BBC News and ITV Spotlight. 

My debut novel, The Invisible Crowd (HQ, 2017), interrogates human experiences of the immigration and asylum system in the UK. It follows Yonas, an Eritrean asylum seeker, on his quest for refugee status in the UK, and it is a polyphonic story, narrated from the points of view of lots of other characters who meet him on his jounry, including his barrister, a bin man who gives him a lift, a home office interviewer, and an artist. It was inspired by my own legal work and years of research, and was awarded a Victor Turner Prize for ethnographic writing. 

Live Literature: The Experience and Cultural Value of Literary Performance Events from Salons to Festivals (Palgrave, 2021) is a multidisciplinary book that interrogates the contemporary culture of live literature events and how they shape literary culture through ethnographies of a major literary festival and an LGBTQ+ literary salon. Experimental in its writing style, it makes a case for using creative writing techniques in ethnographic writing to interrogate the nature and value of arts-based experiences. It has led to invitations to give lectures and talks internationally on live literature, including for the Gothenburg UNESCO City of Literature and Manchester UNESCO City of Literature, and invitations to lecture on literary anthropology and creative ethnographies including at the University of St Gallen.

Saffron Shadows and Salvaged Scripts: Literary Life in Myanmar Under Censorship and in Transition (Columbia University Press, 2015), a crossover monograph, was the first book to explore Myanmar's fascinating literature and culture under decades of censorship. It includes new literary translations paired with extended interviews with authors from three generations. Taking an anthropological perspective, and a literary-ethnographic approach, it examines way in which censorship shapes literary creativity, culture, and production. It led to an invitation to be on the judging panel for the A.L. Becker Prize for South East Asian literature in translation. 

As a curator of literary experiences and events, I have previously been funded by Arts Council England to create immersive short story shows in library spaces such as The British Library. I have hosted podcasts and in-conversation events, including The Hexagon arts and culture podcast.

I enjoy teaching, and designed Exeter's first introductory module for Creative Writing Undergraduates, and an innovative MA Module on environmental literary activism called Writing for the Planet. As a PhD supervisor, I have a 100% success rate of my PhD students passing their vivas with no corrections. I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students for creative writing projects that chime with my research interests.

Before taking up a post at Exeter, I taught creative writing at QMUL, City Lit, Camden Arts Centre, and The British Library. 

I previously worked as a barrister, specialising in human rights, at 39 Essex Chambers (2007-2014). During that time I completed an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London (Distinction). I also have a Masters in Law from UCL, when I specialised in human rights and social theory (Distinction). My undergraduate degree was in Music at Oxford University, where I was awarded the top first.