By Jess Land and Ellen Byrne
There are many disabled authors who are topping the charts, entertaining readers and changing the narrative across the UK – and the north is no exception to this. In honour of November being Disability Awareness Month, we will be spotlighting three disabled northern authors in this issue.
Lisette Auton
Lisette Auton is an author based in Darlington who writes to inspire people to follow their dreams. So far, she has three middle-grade books published by Puffin which are magical stories with protagonists with disabilities at their centre: Lights Up (2024), The Stickleback Catchers (2023) and The Secret of Haven Point (2022). Her Instagram page also shows that she is currently working on a new novel!
Auton draws from her own northern and disabled experiences which gives her an important perspective that has historically been missing from books for young people in particular. She aims to tackle under-representation and keep accessibility at the forefront of her work by portraying main characters with disabilities in joyful stories, moving beyond the often unhappy narratives we're used to seeing. The impact that this has, not only on young readers with disabilities but on the children’s publishing landscape as a whole, is invaluable.
When she is not writing middle-grade books, Auton spends time visiting schools across the UK to deliver creative writing classes and assemblies about her background and the importance of representation. She also holds writing workshops for all ages, lectures on different aspects of her career and works as a mentor through New Writing North and other organisations. But her writing doesn’t stop at middle-grade; Auton is also a playwright, an award-winning poet and was one of Tees Valley’s Artists of the Year in 2024.
Nell Pattison
Based in North Lincolnshire, Nell Pattison is a USA Today bestselling crime and thriller author. She has written multiple books including the three-book Paige Northwood series – The Silent House (2020), Silent Night (2020) and The Silent Suspect (2021) – which were published by Avon and have been translated into different languages since. Her books have found great success, topping Apple book charts and featuring on The Times’ Best Thrillers list.
After graduating from university, Pattison specialised as a teacher in Deaf education and began losing her own hearing in her twenties. Because of this personal experience, her writing features characters who are part of the Deaf community in some way. For example, Paige Northwood – the protagonist of her Paige Northwood series – is a British Sign Language interpreter who the police bring in to assist with interrogations. Similarly, in her 2022 book Friends Don’t Lie, the protagonist is coming to terms with the fact she is losing her hearing whilst being tangled up in a case of mistaken identity.
While there is some representation of Deaf people within literature, Pattison has spoken out about how this is often in the form of one singular character as opposed to a group of characters working to represent Deaf culture. She aims to change this within her novels and has also expressed the importance of writing disabled characters within stories that aren’t solely based around their disability. Pattison’s main goal is to entertain the reader, and it’s safe to say that her thrilling storylines and suspense-filled plots achieve just that.
Anna Zoe Quirke
Anna Zoe Quirke is a queer and autistic author and librarian, currently based in Manchester. Writing from their own experience, Quirke emphasises the importance of neurodivergent characters being at the forefront of stories. Their aim is to write about these characters confidently claiming their identities, challenging preconceived ideas of what disability can look like. They hope that by sharing these stories, young people with disabilities will feel represented, something which they felt was missing whilst growing up.
Quirke recently released their debut novel Something to be Proud of (2024), published by Little Tiger. This contemporary YA novel follows bisexual, autistic protagonist Imogen Quinn, who aspires to defy stereotypes. Teaming up with a whole crew of fellow students, including openly gay football captain Ollie Armstong, they decide to put on a pride festival with accessibility at the forefront. The novel features a diverse cast of characters and is a fantastic champion for inclusivity, putting disabled and queer voices at centre stage.
Very much an up-and-coming author, Quirke has received an array of literary accolades. In 2022, they won the Northern Writer’s Debut Award for YA Fiction with an early draft of their debut, Something to be Proud of. Further to this, they have also been shortlisted for the Peters, Fraser and Dunlop Queer Fiction Prize. Quirke’s writing offers a vibrant and refreshing voice, celebrating joyfulness in both queerness and disability.