Donna Ashworth is a Sunday Times best-selling Scottish poet. She came to prominence in 2020 when her poetry about the UK's COVID-19 lockdown was read in a viral video to raise money for the NHS. She has subsequently been credited with helping poetry sales reach record levels in the UK.
Career
editDuring the UK's first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Ashworth started sharing her poetry on a feminist blog she had run since 2017. Before then, she had primarily shared only others' inspirational quotes. Her poem about this period, "History Will Remember When The World Stopped", became popular online, including being read by celebrities in a video to raise money for the NHS.[1][2] This prompted her to self-publish a pamphlet of lockdown poems on Amazon.[3]
Her second self-published volume, To The Women, sold 100,000 copies, leading her to sign with Bonnier in 2021.[3] Ashworth finished 2023 with three titles in the top five of the poetry book chart and a further two in the top twenty, with total hardback sales around 70,000 books.[1]
In March 2024, Ashworth signed a five-book deal with Scottish independent publishing house Black & White.[4] As of March 2024, Ashworth's Wild Hope had been in The Sunday Times' best-seller chart for eleven weeks[3] and is credited with being partially responsible for 2023 being the best year for British poetry sales since records began.[5]
Style
editAshworth has been described as an Instagram poet, with The Observer calling her "a cheerleader of Instapoetry".[1][6] The Telegraph said the uplifting themes of her poetry "work like motivational Post-It notes". Ashworth herself has described her work as "self help in poetry" and agrees that "a lot of what I say is cheesy", while fans have said her writing is "like a warm hug". The Economist described her work as feeling "like ChatGPT has been asked to produce inspirational fridge magnets".[5][3]
Personal life
editAshworth was born in a small village near Stirling, Scotland. She attended Glasgow University, studying film, theatre studies and Italian. She left university due to anxiety, partly attributed to the death by suicide of a fellow student and the recent murder of James Bulger. "I often respond to [other people’s tragedies] by catastrophising them. So I left all my stuff in the middle of the night and went back home to my mum". She had previously struggled with anorexia in her teens.[3]
She attempted to enter the music industry, singing on cruise ships and moving to Manchester for a management contract. When she did not secure a record contract, she transitioned to magazine journalism.[3]
She is married to Robert Ashworth, former producer of soap opera Coronation Street, with whom she has two sons.[3]
References
edit- ^ a b c Brooks, Richard (2023-12-24). "Poetry sales boom as Instagram and Facebook take work to new audiences". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
- ^ "Stars' moving recital to 'remember Welsh heroes'". BBC News. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
- ^ a b c d e f g Allfree, Claire (2024-03-26). "Donna Ashworth: 'I write for the masses – you can't criticise me for that'". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
- ^ "Black & White signs up Donna Ashworth for five more books". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ a b "Britain has seen an alarming rise in poetry sales". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ Silva, Rafael Mendes (2024-01-31). "Instapoetry is successful and there's nothing wrong with that". The Conversation. Retrieved 2024-04-19.