About
Peggy Riley is a writer and playwright living on the North Kent coast. Recent work includes an essay in the anthology on motherhood, The Best, Most Awful Job, published in the US and UK by Elliott & Thompson. Other essays and nonfiction have appeared in Elle, The Wall Street Journal, and The Big Issue. Her first novel, Amity & Sorrow was published by Little, Brown (USA/Canada), Headline/Tinder Press (UK/Commonwealth/Ireland, and translated for publication in France, Italy and the Netherlands. Her short fiction has been published in MsLexia, the Sunday Express, and The Janus Literary Spring 2021 anthology, the dark wild sea; she was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and the Costa Short Story Award. As a playwright, she was a Writer-on-attachment at Soho Theatre; her work has been commissioned and produced off-West End, on the fringe, on tour and for radio. She is a Yaddo fellow and a recipient of a Grant for the Arts from Arts Council England. Currently a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Canterbury Christ Church University, she has been a bookseller, a festival producer, and writer-in-residence at a young offender prison.
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
- An Interview with Vanessa Gebbie, author of The Coward’s Tale | Worthing Book NetWork
- Weekly Reviews: Buzz Books — @AngeReads and @droogmark Adult Books 4 Teens
- Edinburgh Book Festival Update | 52 books or bust
- 'Amity & Sorrow' - Escaping Cult Life »
- Peggy Riley and Jenn Ashworth at Edinburgh International Book Festival | 52 books or bust
Peggy Riley 
I have been nominated for this blog award and would like to share it with you – see http://www.wildhorse33.wordpress.com Have a great day!
I would like to ask you some questions about writing, if I may.
1.What do you use to write your book? I use open office and Microsoft word?
2.Have you gotten to the point in your writing that you don’t have to have your novel edited?
3.Do you have a literary agent?
4. do you think every writer should have one?
5. Would you ever recommend self publishing?
6.. What advice would you give someone just getting into publishing?
I am sixty-one years old and I love to write and I just got back to writing sense I was a teenager. I belong to a local writing group and I plan on sharing your answer with them.
Thank You for your time.
Deb Brainard
Hi Deborah –
Sorry, this came at a particularly busy time in my writing! I shall answer these questions in a blog post very soon!
Thanks for visiting,
Peggy
Hello
I am loving your book. Thanks to Amity and Sorrow I burnt my dinner. Last time I burnt pasta (it really is possible) while reading a book was “we were completely beside ourselves”
Thank you. Please keep them coming. Best of luck.
I love this – but I am sorry about your dinner!
I’m hoping to have more books soon –
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment,
Peggy
Hello Peggy, I was at your session last Sunday (as a helper and asked you the first question, ‘do you do everything your editor tells you to?’) at Whitstable Castle and really enjoyed it, took shed loads of notes, etc. I’d love to have spoken to you but, last time I looked, you were surrounded. Maybe another time. Will you be doing more at the Festival? Cheers, Sean
I found your book at, of all places, a Dollar Tree store near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I never buy books there (for obvious reasons) but the back-cover synopsis sucked me in and I figured, why not? I am so glad I took the chance. The book was wonderful. It was moving and heartbreaking, and the characters read so true, for being in such extraordinary situations. It’s one that will stay with me for quite a while and is one that I will certainly be loaning out among my friends. Thank you so much!
Well, I’m glad you found me! Thank you for your very kind words – I appreciate hearing from you!
Amity and Sorrow is a wonderful book…lyrical, thought-provoking, believable, informative…the ending “fits” — the author didn’t just tack an ending on but worked the plot towards a logical, realistic, satisfying conclusion with one or more “open ends”