Context

CONTACT

If you want more of me, you can find me on instagram, tik tok and gmail @ wardswriting. Send a blank email subject “newsletter” to get exclusive bonus, behind the scenes, and preview content. If you want to know more about me and my work, read on.

ABOUT ME

If I had to describe myself in the most general, label-loving way I’d say that I am a 33-year-old upper class White American-British disabled trans neuroqueer. My pronouns are he/she and I’m passionate about writing Love Aid: a Naughty Neuroqueer Novel. That doesn’t describe the totality of who I am, but it gives you a vague idea.

I cannot be separated from what I am and where I came from. I had a white upper class upbringing on the island of Manhattan, unceded land of the Lenni-Lenape people. Since university I have lived in another white supremacist patriarchal capitalist colonising superpower, the not-so-United Kingdom of Great Britain and occupied Northern Ireland.

After graduating from Cambridge with a degree in Geography, I moved to London and worked as a financial analyst in the Sales & Trading division of Goldman Sachs. Four years later I left that job to retrain as a tree officer and work in local government. In February 2020 I relocated to work for Bristol City Council. During a major depressive episode in 2021 I quit my job and stayed alive, a luxury provided to me by my financial security and my emotional support network.

Since May, 2023 I have lived in Norfolk. I spend my time writing, making art, gardening, walking, playing, loving and being. It is a blessing that I wish everyone had and I truly believe that a society is possible where everyone has it. I can imagine a future without capitalism, without white supremacy, without patriarchy, without colonialism, without oppression, and without the dominance of cisheteronormative culture at the expense of all others.

I hope that my life helps to bring about that reality in its own small way. At the moment I contribute by being present with my authentically free, loving self in all my interactions with the world, and by helping to support other individuals and organisations working tirelessly at the front-lines of change.

Who I support is driven by my philosophy that the future should be in the hands of those oppressed in the present. A non-exhaustive list includes those who are oppressed on the basis of their relationship to blackness, indigeneity, non-whiteness, disability, queerness, neurodivergence, gender, and class. It includes anyone who is seeking refuge or is subject to violence, is housing insecure, food insecure, healthcare insecure and anyone whose legal status as a human being is diminished by way of being too young, being born in the “wrong” place or just from being the “wrong” sort of person.

I have the resources to offer more support to individuals and organisations that align with my values. Please get in touch with proposals or suggestions. I believe in constant change, the permanent revolution, the “Do not fear the opportunity to do better” (Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race). I am always learning, growing, apologizing and forgiving. If you can tell me how to do better, please do.

WARNINGS

There are themes in my work that people may find distressing, including physical, sexual and emotional violence, explicit sexual content, child abuse, religion, racism, sexism, colonialism and capitalism. Suicidal ideation is a common thread running through much of my work and given my own experience I can imagine that it might be triggering for some. If that’s you, I’m giving you a big virtual hug and letting you know I’m here to chat.

DEDICATION

My life itself is a work of art dedicated to Laurie Green, the neuroqueer artist with whom I’m madly in love and without whom I wouldn’t exist.