Harley E. Ryley is a memoir writer, poet & occasional novelist. She writes about the construction of selfhood, particularly concepts of womanhood and belonging. She is currently studying for her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Sheffield, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council through the White Rose College of Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH). Her thesis is a memoir about writing memoir, a meta-memoir which seeks to disrupt memoir teaching and pose an alternative approach to telling life stories. Harley is also working on two novels: a historical retelling of WW2 story and a science-fiction novel exploring artificial intelligence & parenthood, as well as a collection of poetry about her divorce, entitled ‘The Partial Woman’. 

Harley’s creative non-fiction has been published in The Sheffield Review (formerly Route 57) in 2024 and 2025 and Heroica (2024). Her poetry has been published in The Sheffield Review (formerly Route 57) (2022, 2024, 2025), The Sleeve Magazine (2022) and Book of Matches (2022), and was selected as part of Cut Collective’s New Writing Selection in 2022. Her work has also appeared on BBC Radio Sheffield, and one of her short stories can be found in ‘Fingers’, an anthology of stories available on Amazon. Her historical novel was the winner of Sheffield’s Novel Slam in 2020 and her science fiction novel placed third at Novel Slam 2023. 

Harley also works as a freelance consultant business development manager for arts organisations, currently supporting The Writers Workshop, in Sheffield. She offers writing support services for aspiring and intermediate writers working on memoir and other life-writing projects. 

Memberships & affiliations: