In Conversation: Portico Prize winner Jessica Andrews

Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor

Book now

In Conversation: Portico Prize winner Jessica Andrews

9 December 2020

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Jessica Andrews
Author Jessica Andrews.
Book now

Donning our finery and heading to the hostelry below Manchester’s best-kept library secret for canapés and chat seems like aeons ago, but it was only at the end of January when we were ushered upstairs for the glittering ceremony to award the Portico Prize 2020. The gong – and a tidy sum – went to debut novelist Jessica Andrews, born in 1992, thus making her the youngest author to receive the honour. Quite an achievement, not least because she pipped other more well-known names – such as literary power couple Benjamin Myers and Adelle Stripe – to the so-called Booker of the North.

Described as “lyrical and boundary-breaking”, Portico Prize-winning Saltwater (published by Sceptre) is a coming-of-age novel that explores mother-daughter relationships and identity in relation to place and social class

Like the protagonist in her debut Saltwater, Jessica grew up in Sunderland. In a recent Guardian column, she said: “At 24 I sat down to write my first novel and the raucous bars and rusty bridges of my hometown rushed out of me with a bright, hot urgency.” She has swapped one port city for another; she now lives in Barcelona, where she teaches literature and creative writing to adults, young people and children, and is working on her second novel. She also co-runs and organises events with literary and arts magazine The Grapevine and co-presents literary podcast Tender Buttons, a nod to another expat, Gertrude Stein.

Described as “lyrical and boundary-breaking”, Portico Prize-winning Saltwater (published by Sceptre) is a coming-of-age novel that explores mother-daughter relationships and identity in relation to place and social class and also to the body. It follows a young woman, Lucy, as she leaves behind her working-class northern roots and heads to university in London, where life turns out to be rather more overwhelming than she anticipated. She winds up seeking solace in Ireland, trying to piece together who she really is while living in the quiet of her late grandfather’s cottage and the wild landscape that surrounds it. Author Daisy Johnson (whose Man Booker Prize-shortlisted debut Everything Under and latest novel Sisters also explore female relationships) called the book “sublime”. “Powerful” said the Observer, while the Evening Standard went with “lyrically poetic”, the Independent “stunning” and the Sunday Times described it as “raw, intimate and authentic”.

Jessica will be discussing, among other things, the freedom she finds in writing fiction and how identity and community influence her work. She is joined in conversation by award-winning writer, journalist and broadcaster Anita Sethi, who has written for newspapers and magazines including the Guardian, Sunday Times and Vogue – and who interviewed the six Portico Prize finalists (who also included Glen James Brown, Graham Caveney and Ray Robinson) for January’s Observer piece discussing why “a north-specific prize is more important than ever”.

Jessica Andrews Saltwater
Jessica Andrews Saltwater

Where to go near In Conversation: Portico Prize winner Jessica Andrews

Penistone Hill Country Park
Bradford
Park
Penistone Hill Country Park

As part of Bradford 2025’s UK City of Culture programme, Penistone Hill plays host to outdoor events that celebrate the enduring connection between landscape, identity and creativity.

Threshold is an artist-led project space for sculpture, located in the front garden of a traditional back-to-back house in Burley, Leeds. Exhibitions are open for all to view. Encounter sculpture on your daily walk, or way to work or school.
Leeds
Event venue
Threshold Leeds

Threshold is an artist-led project space for sculpture, located in the front garden of a traditional back-to-back house in Burley, Leeds.

The Engine Room Notice Board
Southport
Event venue
The Engine Room

The Engine Room is a creative community hub in Southport’s Wayfarers Arcade, offering co-working space, cultural events and collaborative opportunities for artists, freelancers and educators.

Leeds
Gallery
The Mill Gallery

The Mill Gallery is an artist-run space in Leeds, supporting emerging artists to develop and showcase their work authentically.

Church congregation at St George's Church in Leeds
Leeds
Place of worship
St George’s Church

St George’s is a lively city centre church in Leeds with three services every Sunday and a midweek programme that includes groups, courses and events. We’re here to help people

Picante
Liverpool
Restaurant
Picante

Picante is a sun-soaked Mexican restaurant at the trailblazing Cains Brewery Village in Liverpool.

Miru Mill
Manchester
Event venue
Miru Mill

Miru Mill is an event space and micro-factory based at Churchgate Mill in Stockport.

Spa
iglu sauna

An authentic and affordable sauna and cold plunge experience in Hebden Bridge, in a beautiful outdoor setting amongst the trees.

What's on: Literature

Roy Macfarlane
LiteratureManchester
Roy Macfarlane at Manchester Poetry Library

As part of the Poetry Reading Series at Manchester Poetry Library, Canal Laureate Roy Macfarlane will be in conversation with the series curator and award-winning poet Helen Mort.

Free entry
Luke Samuel Yates
LiteratureLeeds
Chemistry at The Chemic

Leeds live literature regular Chemistry offers an exciting mix of open mic acts and invited poets – this month the headliners are Helen Ivory and Luke Samuel Yates.

Free entry
An image of Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock, a black middle-aged woman with long hair in a red top, looking directly at the camera with a warm expression. Look for a book
Until
FamiliesManchester
Look for a Book

Kick off Festival of Libraries 2025 with out-of-this-world book searching across Manchester.

Free entry
Tom Branfoot. Photo Eleanor Hall, Museum of the Home
LiteratureWest Yorkshire
Poetry at the Dusty Miller

Poetry at the Dusty Miller is a now regular night with invited readers, organised by Carcanet-published Carola Luther and Judith Willson in the Coiners’ Room in the Mytholmroyd pub.

Free entry

Culture Guides

portrait of Lorsung in a dark shirt with dark hair and dark round glasses
Literature Events in the North

There's a lot of experimentation going on in our Literature guide, from poets playing with form to short story writers looking long.

Three men sit next to each other. One's head is bandaged, one holds a torch and one wears a sleepmask.
Cinema in the North

Live scores, midnight movies and the latest from Wes Anderson are just some of our upcoming film highlights.

Music in the North

Gigs are coming in hot this spring – from long-awaited returns to one-off happenings you’ll blink and miss if you're not careful.

Experience a unique deep listening art installation inviting audiences to lay down and be bathed in sound and light.
Exhibitions in the North

From city-wide art festivals to open-air sculptural installations, we have exhibitions from all around the North, both indoors and out.

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

Eclectic as ever. You'll find inventive reworkings, world-class contemporary dance and Greater Manchester's inaugural Improv Festival in our guide.