Dr Ellen Wiles

I am a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, and a novelist, sound artist, and anthropologist. I previously worked as a barrister and as a musician. I am regularly invited to speak at festivals and events, and serve on judging panels for literary prizes including the Somerset Maugham Award. My personal website is www.ellenwiles.com. My literary agent is Laura Macdougall at United Agents.

I am the author of four books: two novels and two works of non-fiction.

My forthcoming novel, The Unexpected (HQ, 2024), is about the complexities of female friendship, motherhood, and unconventional families navigating social change. It follows two friends, Robin and Kessie, in their mid-thirties, who find themselves platonically co-parenting a baby and have to figure out how to make that work. It delves into anthropology, family law, and animal behaviour along the way. 

My debut novel, The Invisible Crowd (HQ, 2017), explores 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.

Saffron Shadows and Salvaged Scripts: Literary Life in Myanmar Under Censorship and in Transition (Columbia University Press, 2015), a crossover monograph, is 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. 

As a literary sound artist, I am regularly commissioned to create immersive literary audio work and podcasts. Much of my audio work engages with themes of environmental change and landscape, and is designed to engage diverse audiences. I have previously been commissioned by organisations such as The National Trust, The British Library, and Double Elephant. I create sound and video installations as part of my practice.

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 through the Ark project. I also host podcasts and in-conversation events, such as The Hexagon arts and culture podcast.

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.

Teaching:

I convene two modules: Write After Reading, a first year undergraduate creative writing module, and Writing for the Planet: an MA module engaging with literary activism and the climate emergency.

Research supervision:

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students for creative writing projects that chime with my research interests. I currently supervise Fiona Williams and Emma Craigie, and past PhD students include Prof. Anna Kiernan.