Sheena Joughin – Editor

Sheena has won the London Short Story competition twice and published two novels, both widely reviewed.

Of the first (Things to do Indoors, 2003), Julie Burchill wrote “I love this book”, and of the second (Swimming Underwater, 2005) Ali Smith wrote “Both philosophical and a pleasure.”

Sheena has taught on the Creative Writing MA at Bath Spa University, at Oxford Brookes and also taught life-writing for Hammersmith and Fulham adult education. She now runs a Life Writing Workshop in West London. She has reviewed fiction for the Independent, The Telegraph and the New Statesman and currently works regularly for the Times Literary Supplement, reviewing novels and memoirs. As well as fiction, she has written The Hamlyn History of 20th Century Literature and the screenplay for an animated documentary, Men Talk About Mother (2016).

She was a filtering judge for the Sunday Times short story competition in 2019 and will judge the competition again next year.

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Why we love Sheena

Sheena is a master of short-form fiction and brings a great deal of sensitivity and empathy to all her editorial work.

What Sheena says about editing

Every manuscript has its story and every story must find its voice. For me, the pleasure of any work I read is not only the in characters and the plot of a book, but the way the whole is structured. Often, the intention of the work is buried – it’s always hard for a writer to know what their book is really about, until someone discovers that for them and leads them to new ways of exploring what they have written. Once I have identified what the writer really wants to do, I try to work out how that can best be done to make the work as strong as it can be, and as absorbing to re-write as it was to embark on. With every report I write, I try to become a part of the story; to imagine myself struggling to shape the material and to find new ways of developing ideas. I aim to inspire, to direct and to shape, and in doing so, I am often inspired myself.

What Sheena works on

Editorial Assessment

Agent Submission Pack

Post-Editorial Guidance

Genres Sheena specialises in

Fiction:

Contemporary
Literary (including ‘bookclub’)
Women’s
Short stories & novellas

Non-Fiction:

Memoir/Autobiography

Sheena’s published books

Things To Do Indoors

Things To Do Indoors

A wry, spirited look at being glad and young, this foray back into Eighties London explores relations between sisters, mothers, friends and lovers from the vantage point of a girl caught unexpectedly in the middle.

Sisterly sharing is taken beyond the pale when twenty-something Chrissie finds a postcard from her boyfriend to her sister signed, “Kisses, Nick”. Within moments she severs her two central relationships and looks boldly forward to the haphazard pleasures of an independent life.

Her lyrical journey, from love-lorn waitress to self-contained mother, takes us through the pubs, parks, parties, patisseries, peeling houseboats and rackety flats of west London to the shores of Lisbon, Ireland and Brighton. But Chrissie’s attempts to escape the emotional convolutions of London only ever seem to lead to encounters that intensify rather than dispel her growing sense of how knotty life can be…

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Swimming Underwater

Swimming Underwater

When Ruth and Gray meet as children while their parents play at being adults in a rackety old Bohemian house, an electricity passes between them that neither will ever forget. Their paths soon separate as Gray moves to Paris with his girlfriend, and Ruth finds Liam, a sensible and long-suffering friend with whom she falls in love. But Ruth’s eccentric upbringing lingers into adulthood. Affected by her old Aunt Jane’s passion for poetry, Ruth embarks on a comprehensive book of Twentieth Century poets’ lives. Soon, Ruth’s thoughts become haunted by the lives of the poets and dreamers she writes about, as the self-destructive talents of Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost and Philip Larkin begin to influence her in unexpected ways. Until one day, she meets Gray, and their historic chemistry is fired up once again.

Joughin’s exquisite sense of place, her comic eye and wry, erotic prose are prime ingredients in this page-turning novel full of vivid characters, elegance and humanity.

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Testimonials

“A terrific reader’s report. Thank you so much for the valuable feedback. I totally respect and appreciate your advice . . . you have inspired me to ‘stick with it’ based on your extremely positive comments about the strength of the story and how my style develops as the book progresses. . . you have re-fuelled my passion for this story and creative writing.”

– Findlay

“I just wanted to write and thank you in more detail now that I have read (and read and read!) the full report. I felt quite emotional after finishing the whole thing, as the advice seemed to come from a literary kindred spirit (if you will allow me to call you that) who really ‘got’ how I want to write and what I want to write . . . I plan to do a complete rework in the second draft with your advice in mind.”

– Jane

Sheena Joughin – Editor

Why we love Sheena

What Sheena says about editing

What Sheena works on

Editorial Assessment

Agent Submission Pack

Post-Editorial Guidance

Genres Sheena specialises in

Sheena’s published books

Testimonials

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