Yvonne Jewkes

Biography

Yvonne Jewkes recently left a career as professor of criminology to focus on writing. Widely published as an academic author, including the bestselling Media and Crime (Sage), she published her debut nonfiction book in 2024, a memoir titled An Architecture of Hope: Reimagining the prison, restoring a house, rebuilding myself (Scribe). She is now writing contemporary fiction: a campus novel provisionally titled The Anarchist’s Alphabet and a psychological drama/speculative novel, Double Helix. She is writing the latter with Nick Overton, a life sentenced prisoner. They are also collaborating on a nonfiction book, Knowing Nick. When she is not writing, Yvonne teaches creative writing at workshops and retreats with Freedom to Write. She has been writer-in-residence at HMP Grendon and HMP Rye Hill.

Praise for An Architecture of Hope

 ‘A fascinating examination of how bricks and mortar affects our lives and the people we imprison in them. Beautifully written, honest, and clever, this is a book we should all read’ Kit de Waal

‘This delicate story, nestled within a debate so striking and profound, stole my heart’. Lucy Easthope