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Adelle Stripe

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Adelle Stripe
Born1976 (age 47–48)
York, North Yorkshire, England
OccupationWriter
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Greenwich University of Manchester
Website
www.adellestripe.co.uk

Adelle Stripe (born 1976)[1] is an English writer and journalist.

Work

Stripe's writing is rooted in the non-fiction novel form and explores working-class culture, untold histories of Northern England, popular music, and small-town life.

Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile, her debut novel, was based on the life and work of Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar.[2] A theatrical adaptation by Bradford's Freedom Studios and screenwriter Lisa Holdsworth toured across Yorkshire to critical acclaim.[3][4] A new edition of the book is scheduled for publication by Virago in 2025.

Ten Thousand Apologies is her collaborative biography of cult UK band Fat White Family, co-written with singer Lias Saoudi, that traces the group's origins from working-class Huddersfield to Algeria, via sectarian Northern Ireland and the squats of south London.

In 2006, alongside Tony O'Neill and Ben Myers she formed possibly the first literary movement spawned via a social networking site, the Brutalists.[5] She published three chapbook collections of poetry with Blackheath Books, including Dark Corners of Land.[6] The Humber Star, her poem based on the experiences of her ancestors in 19th century Hessle Road, was performed at John Grant's North Atlantic Flux, for Hull UK City of Culture 2017.[7]

As a journalist, Stripe has written features on theatre, film, literature and music for The Quietus, Yorkshire Post and New Statesman.

Her spoken word has appeared on recordings by Smagghe & Cross and the Eccentronic Research Council.[8][9]

Reception

In 2017, writing in The Spectator, Andy Miller noted that Stripe's portrayal of Andrea Dunbar in Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile ‘mixes fiction and biography in a manner that brings to mind the work of the late Gordon Burn. [...] The author's voice and Dunbar's mingle to create not just a portrait of an artist — funny, mischievous, reckless and truthful — but also divisions of class, geography and opportunity which continue to shape this country.’ [10]The Stage commented that 'Dunbar does not emerge from Stripe's fictionalisation as a victim, but as a clever, unhappy woman who deserved better.'[11]

Wendy Erskine, who reviewed Ten Thousand Apologies in the Irish Times, said that Stripe ‘is a master at giving real-life novelistic momentum and shape without anything seeming forced or schematic, and she brings sharp perspicacity to every scene.’[12] Writing in the Observer, Miranda Sawyer described her account of Fat White Family as a 'bleak, funny and compelling biography.[...] Stripe is known for her imaginative novel/biography of Andrea Dunbar, and this book, too, though it reads pretty close to the truth, emphasises that “fact has been used to create fiction” and that people remember events differently. The difference here is Stripe is writing with, as well as about, her subject.' [13]

Honours

Stripe was shortlisted for the Portico Prize for Literature and the Gordon Burn Prize for her novel Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile.[14][15] Ten Thousand Apologies was nominated for the Penderyn Music Book Prize in 2023.[16]

Her PhD thesis on Andrea Dunbar, non-fiction novels and contemporary northern literature was awarded by the University of Huddersfield.[17]

She is an Anthony Burgess Fellow at Manchester University's Centre for New Writing.[18]

Personal life

Stripe grew up in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, and attended Tadcaster Grammar School. She lives in Calderdale and is married to the author Ben Myers.[19]

Bibliography

Non-fiction

  • Base Notes: The Scents of a Life. White Rabbit, 2025.[20]
  • Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure. White Rabbit, 2022. [21]
  • Stay Alive Till '75. Ration Books, 2021.[22]

Fiction

  • Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile. Virago, 2025.[23]
  • Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile. Wrecking Ball Press, 2017. ISBN 9781903110560
  • Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile. Fleet, 2017. ISBN 9780708898956

Short stories

  • A Place Called Bliss, Flashback: Parties For the People By the People, ed. Jamie Holman and Alex Zawadzki, Rough Trade Books, 2021. ISBN 9781914236136
  • The Beautiful Game, AMBIT Issue 243, 2021.[24]
  • Driftwood, Common People: An Anthology of Working Class Writers, ed. Kit de Waal, Unbound, 2019. ISBN 9781783527458
  • Eight Days Left, The Manchester Review, 2018.[25]

Drama

  • Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile. Adaptation by Lisa Holdsworth. Methuen Drama, 2019. ISBN 9781350135925

Poetry

  • Dark Corners of the Land. Blackheath Books, 2012.[26]

Essays and journalism

  • Old School, Baby. I Am Weekender. British Film Institute, 2023.[27]
  • A Cold Day in July, New Postscripts, BBC Canvas, 2023.[28]
  • New Faces in Hell, Excavate: The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall. Faber & Faber, 2021. ISBN 9780571358335
  • Sweating Tears with Fat White Family. Rough Trade Books, 2019. ISBN 9781912722358

Edited works, introductions and forewords

References

  1. ^ Bloomsbury.com. "Bloomsbury - Adelle Stripe - Adelle Stripe". www.bloomsbury.com. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  2. ^ "ANDREA DUNBAR-INSPIRED NOVEL TO FLEET |". bookseller.com. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  3. ^ Wiegand, Chris (10 December 2018). "Andrea Dunbar's life story to be staged in Bradford pub". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  4. ^ "Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile". Freedom Studios. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
  5. ^ Masters, Tim (7 October 2010). "Does poetry need a special day?". Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  6. ^ Stripe, Adelle (2013). Dark corners of the land. Geraint Hughes, Lisa Cradduck (Hardback ed.). Pembrokeshire [Wales]. ISBN 978-1-906099-29-9. OCLC 908194991.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^ "'I'm drawn to strong women'". Morning Star. 18 April 2017. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  8. ^ Smagghe & Cross - MA, March 2017, retrieved 14 March 2023
  9. ^ "The Quietus | News | Eccentronic Research Council Detail 'Dreamcatcher Tapes' Sequel". The Quietus. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  10. ^ Miller, Andy (7 December 2017). "From Bradford to Belgravia". The Spectator. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  11. ^ Peschier, Francesca (3 June 2019). "Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile review at Freedom Studios, Bradford". The Stage. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
  12. ^ "Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Band and the Miracle of Failure". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  13. ^ Sawyer, Miranda (15 February 2022). "Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure review – band on the brink". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  14. ^ Sethi, Anita (12 January 2020). "Northern writers on why a north-specific prize is more important than ever". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  15. ^ Fraine, Laura (21 July 2017). "Gordon Burn Prize 2017 – shortlist announced". New Writing North. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  16. ^ "2023". Penderyn Music Book Prize. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  17. ^ Stripe, Adelle (December 2016). Writing Andrea Dunbar: framing the non-fiction novel in the literary north (doctoral thesis). University of Huddersfield.
  18. ^ "CNW welcomes new Burgess Fellows". CNW welcomes new Burgess Fellows. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  19. ^ Charlesworth, Antonia (30 May 2022). "Radical and gently revolutionary". Big Issue North.
  20. ^ Stripe, Adelle. Base Notes: The Scents of a Life (First ed.). London, UK: Orion. ISBN 978-1399608602.
  21. ^ Stripe, Adelle (2022). Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure (First ed.). London, UK: Orion. ISBN 9781474617840.
  22. ^ "Stay Alive Till '75". Alimentation. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  23. ^ Stripe, Adelle (2025). Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile (3rd ed.). London, UK: Virago. ISBN 9780349020105.
  24. ^ "AMBIT POP 243". AMBIT.
  25. ^ Stripe, Adelle (24 November 2018). "Eight Days Left". The Manchester Review. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  26. ^ Stripe, Adelle (2012). Dark Corners of the Land. Blackheath Books. ISBN 9781906099299.
  27. ^ "I Am Weekender (Limited Edition Blu-ray)". shop.bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  28. ^ "New Postscripts". canvas-story.bbcrewind.co.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  29. ^ "Akiko Yosano — Sweet is the Taste of Tears, with Adelle Stripe". www.thetangerinepress.com. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
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