The springboard for Judith’s writing is often a snippet of conversation, a black and white photo, or an historical document.
Judith is currently working on an historical novel and a collection of short stories.
She is influenced by a strong sense of place, from urban wastelands and city streets to the lonesome seascapes of the coast. Her short stories have been variously set in an M6 motorway service station, a Modernist Liverpool housing estate and on a Cornish beach. In her fiction, she has written across the decades, from a 1960s church sculpture and a 1980s car factory, to modern-day Heathrow.
Judith is particularly interested in exploring difficult emotional truths, family tensions and complex love stories. She is drawn to discovering and unpicking the lives of ‘hidden’ women from the past, whose voices have never been heard.
The turning seasons, the significance of dress - a topic she investigated for her MA in Creative Writing - and the influence of houses and architecture are also favourite themes.
Competitions & Prizes
Judith has won 1st Prize for the London Short Story Prize 2019 and the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition 2017 (USA); 2nd prize for the Exeter Story Prize 2018 and the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award 2016; and 3rd Prize for the Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize 2019.
She has been Highly Commended for the HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition 2023. Judith was shortlisted for the Fish Short Story Prize 2022, the Yeovil Literary Prize 2022, the London Short Story Prize 2018, and the Bath Short Story Award 2017.
“Jacking Sea Fruits in the Dark’ is a marvellous study of voice, imagery, and the ways in which ambiguity can be used to create narrative momentum. It’s all here: a clear sense of place and an evocation of the tangled and inscrutable nature of a person’s relationship to their surroundings and even their own actions.”
“Two things particularly stood out as we discussed this story. First, the narration. It’s a lilting, turning voice, one that is both charming and slightly off-kilter. The voice summons up our protagonist so perfectly via word choice and sentence length. Second, the twist ending. They’re hard to pull off. Done wrong and they can make a reader feel toyed with. But done well and the reader’s eyes dart up the page to reread and re-understand. It seemed that was what we had each done.”
3rd Prize: Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize 2019
‘Hot Butter on Repeat’
“Skilfully moving between one generational point of view to another ‘Hot Butter on Repeat’ vibrates with life, violence, the bonds of family and legacies of conflict and marginalisation from which the story urges us not to look away”
“Explores a part of UK political history that is often overlooked with action, great dialogue and intent”
“We were very impressed with ‘Camellia Girl’. It’s a wonderful story, beautifully written, we particularly liked the deft handling of both characters and the sense that things can change for the better.”