Lisette Auton
Lisette Auton is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, predominantly making work as an author, performer and playwright. She is passionate about telling the stories she struggled to find – those that reflect her northern, disabled and neurodivergent experiences.
As a commissioned playwright her work has been staged by multiple theatre companies including Live Theatre, Unfolding Theatre, and Novo Theatre. WINTRY TALES is published by Methuen Drama: Bloomsbury.
She is the author of four middle grade books for children published by Puffin: THE SECRET OF HAVEN POINT; THE STICKLEBACK CATCHERS; LIGHTS UP; and THE STARLIGHT REBEL. Her books have been shortlisted for five awards and have been Sunday Times Book of the Week. They are written in different genres, but all centre disabled and neurodivergent characters at the heart of the adventures. She has two books forthcoming from Macmillan Children’s Books in 2027 and 2028.
As a poet she has numerous works in print, including a collection developed during her time as poet in residence: INK FLOWS. As a spoken word performer she has delivered her words at festivals and on stages across the country such as at Deershed, Southbank Centre, The Glasshouse, and also in a crypt under a pub and in a laundrette. Lots of her work has been filmed and is available online.
She has worked with school children on flagship projects delivered by New Writing North, Scottish Book Trust, National Literacy Trust and Blue Cabin, as well as visiting hundreds of schools as an author delivering assemblies and workshops. Lisette is a JNC professionally qualified youth worker, with a MSc in Youth Work and Community Development who has worked with words in schools, SEN settings, prisons, probation hostels and PRUs for over twenty years. She specialises in working with disabled, neurodivergent and care-experienced people. Lisette also works as a highly sought after mentor and creative practitioner which allows her to enable others to become the authors of their own stories.
Lisette won the Journal Culture Award 2021 for Performance of the Year for the film that she wrote, directed and performed: WRITING THE MISSING – A RIVER CYCLE, part one of THE WATER TRILOGY, commissioned by New Writing North/Durham Book Festival. She was a TVCA Artist of the Year 2024-2025 giving her a life-changing level of support. She is an award-winning poet; the 2019 Early Careers Fellow for Literature at Cove Park; and on the TSS Publishing list of Best British & Irish Flash Fiction.
Creative access, joy, kindness and welcome are at the heart of everything Lisette does. Her work is in galleries, online, in theatres and bookshops, as well as random places such as railway station waiting rooms. When she’s not playing with words you’ll find her reading them, collecting conkers and pebbles, or having a nap.
