Jenn Ashworth

Jenn Ashworth is an English writer born in 1982 in Preston, Lancashire. In June 2018 Ashworth was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in its "40 Under 40" initiative.

Education

At the age of 11 Ashworth informed her parents that she did not want to go to school, in a behaviour commonly called school refusal. At 13 she was sent to pupil referral unit Larches House which she enjoyed attending; but her placement there ended early after Ashworth was told she would only be allowed to go for one term, and she declined to carry on attending. She eventually returned to mainstream school and after completing her A-Levels, studied English literature at Newnham College, Cambridge, followed by an MA in creative writing at Manchester University's Centre for New Writing in 2006.

Career

Ashworth started her career as a librarian, working in Oxford University's Bodleian Library and then in the public library sector, specialising in reader development and writing industries. Ashworth then became a freelance writer but continued her interest in writing development by setting up the Lancashire Writing Hub She also held the post of Research Fellow at the University of Manchester and in 2011 began lecturing at Lancaster University's Department of English and creative writing.

Writing

Early novels

Two early novels by Ashworth remain unpublished. One was written by her at the age of 17, while another was lost as a result of a computer theft in 2004. However, an extract from this lost novel was the winner of the 2003 Quiller-Couch Prize for Creative Writing at Cambridge University.

A Kind of Intimacy

Ashworth has written both short stories and longer works. Her first novel A Kind of Intimacy, was developed during her time studying creative writing at Manchester University and was published in February 2009 by Arcadia. It tells the story of Annie, a lonely woman failing to come to grips with reality, unable to relate to others and full of self-deception. The story contains strong elements of both comedy and tragedy which ultimately culminates in violence. The novel won a Betty Trask Award from The Society of Authors in 2010.

Cold Light

Ashworth's 2011 novel Cold Light aims, according to her own account, to be "dark and funny and odd". Ashworth was herself brought up as member of the LDS Church, but left the church in her teens.

Curious Tales

Ashworth founded the publishing writing and art collective, Curious Tales, in 2013.

Fell

A fourth novel, Fell, was published by Sceptre in 2016. The Guardian described it as a "dark, compelling tale" where the "past and present mingle."

Notes Made While Falling

Published by Goldsmiths Press, November 2019, it has been described as a "genre-bending memoir and a cultural study of traumatized and sickened selves in fiction and film."

Ghosted

A fifth novel, Ghosted, was issued in the summer of 2021.

Works

Short Stories "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" - Paint a Vulgar Picture: Fiction Inspired by the Smiths (Serpent's Tail, 2009, ) "The Wrong Sort of Shoes" – Bugged: Writings from Overhearings ( CompletelyNovel.com, 2010, ) "Hammer" – Jawbreakers: 2012 National Flash-Fiction Day Anthology (CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2014, ) "Every Member a Missionary" – MIR9 The Mechanics' Institute Review, Issue 9 (MA Creative Writing, 2012, ) "Shoes" – Scraps: A collection of flash-fictions from National Flash-Fiction Day 2013 (Gumbo Press, 2013, 978–0957271340) "Katy, My Sister" – Short Fiction Journal, Vol. 7 (2013, ) "Dark Jack" – The Longest Night: Five Curious Tales (Curious Tales, 2013) "Doted" – Transatlantic: The Litro Anthology (Ocean Media, 2014) "Dinner For One" – Poor Souls' Light: Seven Curious Tales (Curious Tales, 2014) The Badger(Ration books, 2022) "The Hanging Stones" - Bog People - A working class anthology of folk hirror (Penguin, 2025)

Novels A Kind of Intimacy (Arcadia Books, 2009, ) Cold Light (Sceptre, 2011, ) The Friday Gospels (Sceptre, 2013, ) Fell (Sceptre, 2016, ) Radio commissions Five Thousand Lads a Year – Commissioned by BBC Radio 4 for Friday Firsts

Newspaper Articles "Why I refused to go to school" – The Guardian, 13 January 2012 "Under my skin: Why are so many women getting tattoos? Jenn Ashworth on the appeal of permanent markings" – The Guardian, 14 December 2013 "Generation rental: the housing crisis facing today's youth" – The Observer, 16 March 2014

Book Contributions Chapter on Amy Levy, poet and feminist – Breaking Bounds: Six Newnham Lives (Newham College, 2014, ) Chapter – Writing Short Stories (Bloomsbury, 2014, ) Chapter – The Aart of the Novel (Salt Publishing, 2015, )