Maya Jordan

Selected by A Writing Chance, a programme launched by actor and writer Michael Sheen with New Writing North to support working-class and under-represented writers, Maya’s work has been performed by Michael for BBC Radio Wales’ Margins to Mainstream and was highlighted by him in his Tedx Talk “Levelling the Cultural Playing Field”. ‘A curse on being ordinary! Wrong is not her name. Her name is Maya Jordan. She is a noisy woman and we should fear her.’ Michael Sheen

Maya’s memoir The Emergency Chicken & Other Stories is the story of a woman who is told that everything about her is wrong. Wrong for being poor, wrong for being noisy, wrong for being too tall, too fat, too bright, wrong for being unwell and finally wrong for wanting to be a writer… She may look like an ordinary woman but this is the story of a woman who survived poverty and a destructive relationship, raised six children, sometimes alone and was ultimately saved by the library. She is far from ordinary…

Told in three parts, Maiden, Mother and Crone, this is a sharply funny, moving and rousing account of a life lived in (ultimately triumphant) opposition to the limitations of a working-class woman’s life. World rights have been sold to Hannah Macdonald of September Publishing for publication in 2026.

‘I am so excited to be working with September Publishing and my brilliant agent Natalie Jerome. It’s no exaggeration to say that I would not have written a memoir if it wasn’t for A Writing Chance. The lack of visibility of women like me, as characters or writers of books meant that while I loved reading I was stood outside looking in. Books, it seemed, were not written by people like me, about people like me. A Writing Chance opened the door. This is why representation matters. We need to see and hear all our voices. We all have stories to tell. If we don’t get to tell our stories ourselves, then they tell them about us. And they always get it wrong.’ Maya Jordan

Hannah MacDonald, September’s publisher: ‘Maya’s voice is strong and urgent, but also sharp and sweet and funny. This will be a rallying book for female readers, who recognise those feelings of invisibility, obstruction and exploitation and those harsh, lived experiences at the intersection of class, inequality, danger and sexism. Whether patronised at school or insulted in a doctor’s surgery, every woman can recognise those moments of both insult and ensuing anger and will relish in Maya’s journey to self-realisation.’

Claire Malcolm CEO of New Writing North says: ‘I’m not sure I’ve ever read hunger described so clearly nor understood how the shame of it carries on throughout life. This memoir will speak to those that grew up during the 70’s and 80’s when the effect of gender politics on girls and women and the economic disparities that we recognise today were beginning to form. The memoir is also a triumphant success story about clearing a path for yourself and finding the freedom, words, and perhaps courage in mid-life to put pen to paper. There are life lessons here for all of us...’