Claire Askew

Claire Askew (born 10 March 1986) is a Scottish novelist and poet.

Biography Claire Askew was born on 10 March 1986. She attended the University of Edinburgh, completing her undergraduate degree, postgraduate degree, and her PhD, before taking on the role as Writer in Residence at the same institution. In 2017 her first two novels were bought by Hodder & Stoughton, with the first, All the Hidden Truths, being released in 2018. Her latest book, How to Burn a Woman, is a collection of poems featuring outcast women through history, including witches, a group with which Askew herself identifies.

In December 2025, Askew was a guest on the Off the Shelf podcast to discuss her winning the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize in 2016.

Writing The first book in her crime fiction series, which follows the work of DI Helen Birch, All the Hidden Truths, won the inaugural Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year in 2019. In addition, the book was the winner of the 2016 Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger and Debut Dagger awards, and longlisted for the 2014 Peggy Chapman-Andrews (Bridport) Novel Award. She has subsequently published What You Pay For and Cover Your Tracks with Hodder & Stoughton.

Askew has also published three collections of poetry, The Mermaid and the Sailors (Red Squirrel Press, 2011), which won the 2010 Virginia Warbey Poetry Prize, This Changes Things (Bloodaxe, 2016) and How to burn a Woman (Bloodaxe, 2021). This Changes Things was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Award, the Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize, and the Michael Murphy Memorial Award.

Publications

Fiction

All the Hidden Truths (2018), Hodder & Stoughton This Changes Things (2016), Bloodaxe How to Burn a Woman (2021), Bloodaxe

Non-fiction Novelista (2020), John Murray Press

Awards

Fiction

Poetry Winner

Virginia Warbey Poetry Prize - 2010. International Salt Prize for Poetry - 2012.

Shortlisted

Edwin Morgan Poetry Award - 2014 and 2016.

This Changes Things

Shortlisted

Saltire First Book Award - The Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize. The Michael Murphy Memorial Award.