Louise is a London-based writer and editor with an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London. In 2018, she was appointed Features Editor at mironline.org, an online literary magazine, and is a regular contributor to their Author Not Present podcast. She was named one of The Observer’s ten best debut novelists of 2020. Her debut novel, This Lovely City (HQ, Harper Collins), was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2021.

Louise loves exploring new places through fiction, whether that be our world with a slight twist, or stories set on planets a million light years away.

Fairy tales, legends and folklore are of special interest to her, as are alternate histories, historical fantasy, YA fantasy, Own Voices stories and anything with magic.

If Louise were stranded on a desert island, the two fantasy and/or science fiction novels she would want with her are Kindred by Octavia Butler (she is in awe of this book and finds the way that Butler weaves together African American history and time travel extraordinary), and Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. As an adopted Londoner she loves seeing her city in this book, but also enjoys the magical and supernatural elements. She likes to think she’d be a better apprentice wizard than Peter Grant…