Natasha Bell

Natasha is an author, researcher, and creative writing tutor. Her novels ‘His Perfect Wife’ and ‘This Nowhere Place’ are available from Penguin. She’s also published a memoir with HarperCollins and short stories in a variety of journals and anthologies.

She holds an MA in Creative and Life Writing from Goldsmiths and is finishing off a practice-led PhD in autofiction. In addition to editing and mentoring with Jericho Writers, she teaches novel-writing at City Lit and Faber Academy and mentors for The Riff Raff. She’s also worked as a sub-editor at The Press Association.

Natasha loves narrative in all forms, but has a particular passion for psychological suspense, women’s fiction, queer fiction, and any stories that blur the line between truth and imagination.

Specialises in: Contemporary, literary, book club, crime, thriller, action, women’s fiction, short stories, and novellas. Natasha also specialises in memoir and subject-led non-fiction including autofiction, autotheory, narratology, LGBTQIA+, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Performance Studies, and feminism.

Natasha provides tuition for our Mentoring Service.

I’m hugely passionate about mentorship because I’d never have set out to write myself without the support of a dedicated and talented mentor who took me under her wing. I began writing in my late teens when I had a story that I felt I needed to get out of myself, and it was that patient writer who helped me understand how to shape my messy thoughts into narrative. Since then, as I’ve worked on and published my own works, it’s always felt important to do so with and alongside other writers.

My approach to 1-2-1 mentoring, be it through bespoke packages or as part of a course like Jericho’s UNWC, is always a flexible one. Our job is to work together to identify and respond to your specific needs as an author, and to push both you and your work to achieve their fullest potential. My concern is not just the book or text you’re currently writing, but also the habits, techniques and practice that you’re developing for an ongoing career as a published author.

I’m a genre-hopper, so my experience straddles fiction and non-fiction, commercial and more literary. I’m happy to work with writers at all stages, on clearly focused projects and more explorative/experimental ones. I’m best suited to offer industry advice about traditional routes to publication, but I can help with the developmental and editorial stages of self-published projects as well.