Louise Powell is the author of UNDERDOGS, a literary fiction novel which is to be published by the JM Originals imprint of John Murray Press on 2nd July 2026.
An award-winning, working-class writer from Middlesbrough, Louise won the Sid Chaplin Northern Writers’ Award 2023 for the opening of UNDERDOGS, and was the joint recipient of the Peter Lathan Prize for New Playwriting 2022.
Image credit: Rob Irish
Louise’s plays have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra and performed at nine theatres. She has written three commissioned short art films, as well as two Arts Council funded audio documentary series, and was published in Kit de Waal’s acclaimed Common People anthology. She is the author of the Coal Face poetry and creative non-fiction collections. Her writing from this series has been exhibited at multiple museums.
She is a 4-time recipient of Arts Council funding and has received commissions from multiple organisations, most recently New Writing North’s ‘North East Now’ Series of non-fiction essays. In 2023, she held a year-long residency at Josephine Butler College, Durham University.
Still from art film ‘Counter Culture’. Image credit: Topher McGrillis
Louise has been on talent development schemes for her writing with the BFI, BBC and New Writing North, among others. She was also selected for leadership mentoring through the Clore Leadership Tees Valley Programme.
An internationally and domestically published scholar, Louise has a PhD in English from Sheffield Hallam University. Her research into seventeenth-century twins has appeared in journals, edited collections and educational magazines.
She also holds a Professional Greyhound Trainer’s Licence from the Greyhound Board of Great Britain.
Louise is represented for literary fiction by Elise Middleton at YMU Literary.
If you would like to get in touch with Louise, please feel free to do so:
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DR LOUISE POWELL 