Ashleigh Nugent
Ashleigh Nugent
Ashleigh Nugent is a writer, performer and Creative Director at RiseUp CiC. His publishing credits include poetry anthologies, blogs, magazines articles and academic journals.
His debut novel, LOCKS, will be published by Picador on 22nd June 2023. You can read about this aquisition at The Bookseller
LOCKS won the 2013 Commonword Memoir Competition for its early extracts and is now receiving rave reviews in magazines and blogs. LOCKS is based on the time the author spent his 17th birthday in a Jamaican detention centre. It is now being reviewed by major publishers , which would make Ashleigh the first black male writer from Liverpool to have a traditional book deal in his genre.
Ashleigh’s one-man-show, based on LOCKS, won a bursary from Live Theatre, Newcastle and has received rave audience reviews following showings in theatres and prisons throughout the UK.
For the past 22 years, Ashleigh has used rap, poetry and literature to help the most vulnerable to develop positive mindsets. Ashleigh’s company, RiseUp CiC, have developed a programme that empowers prisoners to turn their lives around by taking control of their own thoughts, feelings and actions.
LOCKS is now in numerous libraries in UK prisons and is being read in prison to improve literacy and engagement.