About
Dr Louise Tondeur

Lou's second short story collection, Invisible, is out in 2026 and she is currently writing a book on mindfulness for Bloomsbury Academic. She has published several other books, including a series of short, friendly guides for writers, based on her many years of teaching experience. Lou teaches part-time for the Open University and the Creative Writing Programme, and works as a freelance editor, mentor and tutor. She also runs her own workshops and writing courses.

After studying Drama, Lou worked as a Drama teacher in secondary and community education before completing an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, and a PhD at the University of Reading on cultural interpretations of hair. Her earlier publications include two novels, The Water’s Edge and The Haven Home for Delinquent Girls, with Headline Review, published in 2003 and 2004, alongside poetry, nonfiction and academic essays from her PhD, which included the first academic essay on pubic hair. In 2018, she published her first short story collection, Unusual Places, written on location in venues mainly around London. An updated edition of The Small Steps Guide to Goal Setting and Time Management was released in 2023. Poetry credits include Perverse, The Rialto, Under the Radar, Finished Creatures and Shearsman.

Lou got her dyslexia and dyspraxia diagnosis in her 40s and has spoken and written about being a neurodivergent writer, for example, in this post for The Bookseller. She has had an abidding interest in cultural interpretations of the body since writing her PhD, and a personal/political interest in sociocultural constructions of disability. Sha has also spoken at the Coast is Queer literary festival on mental health. Lou’s current work is also informed by her professional background in education and academia and, in particular, her leadership of the Creative Writing programme at the University of Roehampton, where she worked until 2017. She also spent three years as a part-time lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Brighton. Creative pedagogy, especially Drama, has remained central to her professional life.

Lou lives on the (sometimes) sunny south coast of the UK with her wife, their son and two black cats and writes in a chalet, known as 'the writing shed', at the bottom of her garden.

For writing advice and tips, follow her on Substack and for online courses go here. To book onto Lou's upcoming Hove Yellowave workshops, go here.