Pondweed

Winner of the 2025 VS Pritchett Short Story Prize, The Guardian’s National Short Story Prize and the 2020 Arnold Bennett prize, Lisa Blower is a highly acclaimed novelist, playwright, short story fanatic, and advocate for the regional voice. A voracious reader who was given an adult library card from Hanley City library aged six, she’s been hailed by Kit De Waal as the – “natural heir to Arnold Bennett” – and often pays homage to The Potteries where she grew up.

Her work has been shortlisted for the BBC Short Story Award, The Sunday Times Short Story Award and the Bridport prize. It has also appeared on BBC Radio 4, in the New Welsh Review, The Simple Things, Comma press, Oh Magazine, The Big Issue amongst others. She was a columnist for The New Issue and contributed to the anthologies ‘Common People‘ (Unbound, 2019) and ‘Spake’ (Nine Arches Press, 2019) which celebrate the regional voice and being working-class. Her play ‘The Miner Birds’ – working with the North Staffs Miners’ Wives Action Group as part of the 40year commemorations of the Miners’ Strike, was performed at The New Vic Theatre in July 2024, and in March 2025. And ‘Blessing in Burslem,’ a one-act monologue, was performed by Lorna Laidlaw for Borderlines Theatre in August 2025.

Lisa holds a PhD from Bangor University in Creative & Critical Writing where she taught for 9 years. She is Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Keele. In 2025, she launched the Arts council funded project: Restoking the Potteries Narrative: 100 Books in a 100 Years, seeking to create the first literary canon for Stoke-on-Trent during its centenary year.