Ashley Hickson-Lovence is a novelist, poet, literary critic, and Lecturer of Creative Writing.
Wild East was his first award-winning YA verse-novel, and was partly inspired by his time as a secondary school English teacher, his own move from London to Norwich, and tutoring a group of asylum seekers at an Arvon retreat. Wild East also weaves in Ashley's love of British hip hop. His second YA verse-novel, Dead Ends, will publish in 2026. Ashley has also written two adult novels, The 392, and Your Show, which was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and shortlisted for the East Anglian Book Awards.