About me

Ellen Wiles is a writer, multidisciplinary artist and academic. A Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Exeter (part-time), she is the author of two novels, The Invisible Crowd and The Unexpected, and two non-fiction books, Saffron Shadows and Live Literature. She also writes articles, reviews, and short fiction. Her multidisciplinary arts practice centres around creating literary audio work, including podcasts, immersive audio experiences, installations and live performances. Ellen is currently artist-in-residence in an environmental science centre leading a project called Storying Water, exploring water system resilience through imaginative storytelling. She has degrees in music, law, anthropology and creative writing, and previously worked as a barrister and as a musician.

WRITING

The Unexpected (HarperCollins, 2024) is a novel following two female friends as they attempt to platonically co-parent a baby, exploring ideas of kinship, friendship, motherhood and identity, and family law.

The Invisible Crowd (Harper Collins, 2017), is a novel about immigration, asylum, law and serendipitous connections. A polyphonic narrative, it follows Yonas, an Eritrean asylum seeker, after he’s been smuggled into the UK, and a variety of people he encounters on his quest for leave to remain. It was awarded a Victor Turner Prize for ethnographic writing and was a Guardian Readers’ book of the year.

Live Literature: The Experience and Cultural Value of Literary Performance Events from Salons to Festivals (Palgrave, May 2021) is the first book to explore the rise in live events within literary culture in a digital age. Through ethnographic and multidisciplinary research, it interrogates some of the reasons why audiences value such events and how they experience them, drawing on research from cognitive science and performance studies as well as literary and publishing studies.

Saffron Shadows and Salvaged Scripts: Literary Life in Myanmar Under Censorship and in Transition (Columbia University Press, 2015) is the first book to explore literary culture in this fascinating country, and includes interviews with three generations of writers and new translations of their work.

Ellen writes articles and reviews on a variety of subjects, and has been a regular TLS contributor, reviewing fiction, non-fiction and theatre.

AUDIO & MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTS

Ellen makes immersive audio work including fictional sound stories and soundwalks, focusing on nature restoration, environmental change, and more-than-human life, and featuring rich spatial soundscapes. She has been commissioned by organisations including The National Trust, and shortlisted for a Creative Climate Award for her immersive fictional sound story Riverlandia, which is a response to a river restoration project. She is currently working as an artist-in-residence in an environmental science centre, CREWW (The Centre for Resilience in Environment, Water and Waste), making audio and other creative and musical work around the water system and its resilience, in a project called Storying Water. Ellen’s immersive installation work will be shown in a forthcoming joint exhibition, Shifting Waterscapes, at Thelma Hulbert Gallery. Ellen has previously directed multiple immersive literary performances involving cross-arts collaborations as founder of Ark, an experiential live literature organisation, funded by Arts Council England and commissioned by The British Library.

ACADEMIA

Ellen works as a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing the University of Exeter (part-time), and has a multidisciplinary and arts-led approach to academia. Her PhD is in literary anthropology, and she has Masters degrees in law and creative writing, and an undergraduate degree in Music from the University of Oxford. She has had success in funding applications, including being awarded the first major grant from industry in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences faculty for an arts-led residency project in an environmental science centre. She enjoys teaching, and has designed and convened academic courses for students including a foundational first year creative writing module, Write After Reading, and a specialist MA module called Writing for the Planet, exploring literary activism during the climate and ecological crises. She supervises PhD students working on creative writing projects that resonate her my own research and practice interests. She also enjoys leading creative writing workshops beyond the university, and has taught groups from anthropologists and scientists to artists to families in settings ranging from art galleries to libraries and moorlands.

LAW

Before focusing on writing, Ellen practised as a barrister for seven years at 39 Essex Chambers, specialising in human rights, Court of Protection cases and environmental and planning law. She has also worked on international legal projects as a human rights and rule of law consultant in Thailand, Botswana, and Myanmar, for organisations including the ICRC and Survival International. Her legal work and research has led to academic legal articles, and has also shaped her literary writing, including both her novels: The Unexpected explores the evolution of family law, while The Invisible Crowd was inspired by asylum cases she worked on as a barrister. Her first book, Saffron Shadows, explores the impact of censorship laws on literary life and creative culture in Myanmar.

MUSIC

Ellen read Music at the University of Oxford, studied flute at the Royal Academy of Music, and used to play the flute professionally, and in a jazz quartet for fun. She has recently begun incorporating music and composition into her audio and performance practice.