Hazell Ward

Hazell lives in Wrexham, a Welsh working-class town where, any Saturday during football season, you will see thousands of passionate football fans and a fair few Hollywood A-listers. For many years an adult education teacher, she went on to work for a charitable organization in an area of economic deprivation, working with young adults to encourage them to aspire to further education or employment, and to do her part to help them achieve those aspirations.

Taking inspiration from her young mentees, she completed an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and loved it so much she is now working for a PhD.

She credits her mum with instilling in her a love of reading and a fierce desire to be a writer. The house she grew up in had lots of books, lots of love, and, always, a sink full of dirty dishes. There could be no better upbringing for a writer than having a mother who was always lost in a book.

Hazell has four grown up children and a granddaughter, who take up most of her spare time. She also plays the piano (badly). She was short-listed for the Margery Allingham Short Story Competition in 2021, and won the CWA Short Story dagger in 2023 for her story, Cast a Long Shadow, published by Honno Press. Her debut novel, The Game is Murder, has been acquired by Penguin Michael Joseph, and is due for release in summer 2025.