Lucie Bowins

Lucie Bowins is a YA fiction writer, poet and memoirist. In her fiction writing, she loves nothing more than creating new and exciting worlds, whether past or future. Elderwitch is the first novel to be published from her Treewitches trilogy and she is so excited to be finally sharing Emeline and Owain’s worlds. If she has her way, she has two, maybe three more books in her head to write after this series, and also a treewitch compendium — because there’s too much information on the treewitches she needs to share!

She is also in the middle of completing a creative writing PhD, and as part of that, she is writing a YA gothic dystopian novel influenced by the fictional writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, the 18th-century feminist and mother of Mary Shelley. There’s a little more about that — All That Lies Beneath — among her current projects below.

With both personal and professional experience of mental illness and disability, Lucie is trying to incorporate such themes within her writing in a sensitive and positive way, and as a CODA (child of Deaf parents), she is keen to raise the profile of CODA and D/deaf characters. In particular, she has used her poetry and non-fiction writing to explore some of her life experiences and those of the amazing women she grew up with, especially her mum, Ruth.

Lucie has facilitated regular writing workshops at an arts centre for adults with disabilities and neurodiversity, with a specific focus on ‘being heard’, and has recently started lecturing on a Writing and Wellbeing module at Canterbury Christ Church University. She was very lucky to spend many years working with survivors of mental health institutions in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and it was during this time she began collecting small pieces of local art. While she is definitely no expert, this spurred an enduring love for collecting affordable art and visiting galleries. She has a particular obsession with vintage designs from the Polish School of Posters art movement! She is also lucky enough to work as a visitors’ guide at the late artist, writer and filmmaker Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, Kent.

When she is not working or writing, Lucie enjoys scrapbooking and trying to finish various sewing projects she’s started. She loves more than anything to spend time at home with her family and two rescue dogs, Olive and Wilbur, although she hopes she’s a better writer than she is a dog trainer!