About

Ellen Wiles is a writer, multidisciplinary artist, musician and academic. She is the author of novels, short stories and creative non-fiction across forms including books, audio and film. She works as Artist-in-Residence at CREWW, an environmental science centre, leading Storying Water, a project exploring water resilience, and as Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. Her environmental arts practice is focused on immersive literary audio informed by eco-acoustics and polyphonic structures involving more-than-human voices, and her soundwalks, fictional stories and installations have been commissioned by organisations including The National Trust. She regularly speaks at literary events and on podcasts, and is currently a judge for the Somerset Maugham Prize. She previously worked as a barrister, and has degrees in music, law, anthropology and creative writing.

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Ellen’s books include two novels, The Invisible Crowd (2017) and The Unexpected (2024), both published by Harper Collins (HQ), and two crossover non-fiction books: Saffron Shadows and Salvaged Scripts: Literary life in Myanmar under censorship and in transition (Columbia University Press, 2015) and Live Literature: The experience and cultural value of literary performance events from salons to festivals (Palgrave, 2021). She also writes articles, reviews, essays and short fiction for publications including the TLS. She is a judge for the Society of Authors’ Somerset Maugham Prize for writers under thirty and is regularly invited to speak at festivals, events, in the media and on podcasts.

Her environmental arts practice centres around creating immersive literary audio work, including podcasts, sound works, installations and live performances, and she has been commissioned by organisations including The National Trust. Riverlandia, her immersive fictional sound story, was shortlisted for a Creative Climate Award in 2025. Ellen is currently Artist-in-Residence at CREWW, an environmental science centre, leading a project called Storying Water which is focused on imaginative approaches to communicating about water system resilience involving acoustic ecology and creative writing.

She has degrees in music, law, anthropology and creative writing. She previously worked as a barrister.

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 literary audio work including fictional stories and evocative soundwalks, focusing on themes of nature restoration, environmental change, and more-than-human life, and featuring rich spatial soundscapes. Her work has been featured on BBC and ITV news. She has been commissioned by organisations including The National Trust, and shortlisted for a Creative Climate Award for her immersive fictional sound story, Riverlandia. She is currently working as 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 exploring water system resilience, leading the project Storying Water. Ellen’s immersive installation work has been shown in venues including The British Library, the Atlantic Centre for the Arts, and Postive Lights project. New work will be shown in a forthcoming joint exhibition, Shifting Waterscapes, at Thelma Hulbert Gallery in 2026. Ellen has previously curated and directed innovative immersive short story performance experiences involving cross-arts collaborations as founder of Ark, an experiential live literature organisation, funded by Arts Council England and commissioned by The British Library. Her creative practice intersects with academic research in the fields of acoustic ecology and the value of arts-based experiences and literary narratives.

ACADEMIA

Ellen works as a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing the University of Exeter (part-time), where her multidisciplinary and arts-led approach to research have led to success in research funding and leadership in Business, Engagement and Innovation. She had a career as a barrister before moving to academia, a PhD in literary anthropology, Masters degrees in law and creative writing, and an undergraduate degree in Music from the University of Oxford. She successfully negotiated the first major industry-funded grant in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences faculty for an innovative arts-led residency and research project in an environmental science centre. She enjoys teaching, has been shortlisted for an Outstanding Teaching Award by the student body at the University of Exeter, and has designed and convened innovative and popular 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, and has a 100% record of her PhD students passing their vivas with no corrections and having their theses published. She also enjoys leading creative writing workshops beyond the university, and has taught groups from anthropologists, executives and scientists to artists to families in settings ranging from art galleries to libraries and moorlands.

LAW

Before focusing on creative writing and arts-led research, 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 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; her latest novel, The Unexpected, explores the evolution of family law, while her debut novel, 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 now incorporates music and composition into her sound and multidisciplinary art practice.