Lucy Ayrton is a novelist and lecturer with a special interest in writing about class and marginalised groups. Her first novel, One More Chance (Dialogue, 2018), looked at the world of women and babies in prisons, while her second, Things We Lose in Waves (Renegade, 2023), was set in a small Northern town during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Previously, Lucy was a performance poet, bringing several full-length poetry shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and competing in the final of the UK National Poetry Slam. One poetry show was performed as a radio play, another turned into a pamphlet. As a poet, she performed at Glastonbury Festival, the Royal Albert Hall and many, many back rooms of pubs. Lucy has been involved in helping people find a creative voice for more than ten years. This involved hosting Oxford’s poetry slam, Hammer and Tongue, teaching creative writing at Crisis homeless centre and, currently, lecturing in creative writing at Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education. She has a particular interest in inclusivity in creative writing pedagogy and has always aimed to open the world of writing to as many people as possible.
Before she became a lecturer, Lucy worked in communications for a prison charity and used every spare minute to write poetry and novels. She has always had a portfolio career with various competing deadlines and she truly understands an essay crisis. She lives in Oxford with her husband and young daughter. Lucy’s next novel will be a thriller about tradwives.
