Writing
I’m a writer and counsellor. I write creative non-fiction, focussing on the experiences of connecting with self and others when living with life challenges.
I’m represented by Abi Fellows at The Good Literary Agency.
My writing is found at the intersection between systemic dynamics in relationship, social justice, marginalised identities and the creative arts.
I have explored and developed my work with the thousands of disabled and marginalised peoples I have been privileged to learn, teach, coach and work with.
My intention is to write for those who are often overlooked, alone and struggling. I specialise in creating for people living with limits, particularly multiply marginalised folx with trauma, chronic illness and disability.
In my writing, I explore how to live well at the margins; this is a process of making beauty from the hardest times, honouring, stitching sorcery and the sacred from our own scars. Because, so many times, if we don’t honour them, no one will.
My work has been featured in The Guardian, The Metro, The Institute of Welsh Affairs, Literature Wales and The Daily Mirror.
I am working on a book about unruly bodies and minds, otherness, embodiment, the boundaries where we connect and the power of our stories. This draws from my personal experience, psychotherapeutic counselling work and the teachings from the scarred and sacred folx living at the margins.
Education
I have studied writing poetry, memoir, journalism and creative non-fiction. I’ve been blessed to study with Lidia Yuknavitch, Lilly Dancyger, Lily Dunn, Terese Mailhot and Alexander Chee.
I have a degree in history, specialising in medieval women’s and gender studies, where I studied the work of early women writers and the querelle des femmes.
Awards
I was recipient of a Francis Reckett Award in 2019 and a residency at Ty Newydd, The National Writing Centre of Wales.
I was awarded the The London Library Emerging Writers Award and a shortlisted for both the Nan Shepherd Prize and the Writers’ & Artists’ Working-Class Writers’ Prize 2021.
In 2020, I was commissioned by Literature Wales and The Royal College of Psychiatrists Wales to create resources for trauma-informed creative writing.
I am currently undertaking a residency at the Pervasive Media Studios at The Watershed, Bristol.
To me, art is a blessing for survival.
The words I love are those that keep us breathing, connecting, witnessing, awake.
Carving spaces for ourselves and each other in painful times is sweetest compassion.
The writing done in foxholes is the truest that I know.
Publications
Publications include:
Common Experiences and Responses to Data: My Relationship to Data as a Trauma Therapist (South West Creative Technology Network)
Occupied Country: Marginalised Bodies in Virtual and Physical Wales (Institute of Welsh Affairs)
Disruptive Bodies and Unruly Words: my first writing residency (Literature Wales)
Self-Help for Queer Lockdown: Coping Without Community (Talk To The Rainbow)
People Can’t Cope With My Happy Disabled Love Life (The Metro)
On the edge: the coronavirus crisis has shifted many more people to the margins of society (The Fabian Review Online)
I burned my pyjamas and volunteered for the largest health board in Wales (Guardian)
La Belle au Bois Dormant: on Dissociation and Resilience (The Unexpected Shape)
When It Hurts More Than You Can Bear (Positively Positive)
Yoga: My Thread to Follow, Home and Beyond (Marianne Elliott)
What do I say? Writing to Someone with Illness or Grief (Pretty by Post)
I Have Found Ways (Second Firsts)
Life Beyond Limits (Nikki Groom – The F Word)
Strength in the Tenderest Places: You Are Not Broken (Christy Tending)
Bring my words to your world
If you are interested in commissioning a piece of writing, essay, guest article or would like to re-publish a piece of my writing, please get in touch: grace AT gracequantock.com
Thank you for your interest, I look forward to working together.
Books
Non-fiction:
Beyond the Boundaries: Finding Freedom & Fulfilment Within Four Walls
Contributed chapters:
When Bodies Break: How We Survive and Thrive with Illness and Disability
Thirteen Moons: Book of Women’s Wisdom
Watch Her Thrive: Stories of Hope, Courage and Strength
Radical Self-Love Almanac 2016 and 2017
Creative Non-Fiction and Personal Essays
Framing Disability and Diagnosis
Dear Self-Help Wellness Influencers: Diagnosis is Political Not Just Personal
Reality and the Triumphant Narrative
Personal Narratives
The Girl Who Walked into Walls: A Story of Finding the Way Home
Navigating Wellness
Small Tools and Self-Compassion
Be Flare Prepared: How To Create a Flare Kit for Bad Days
Dealing With a Bad Day Without Netflix, Chocolate or Guilt
Therapeutic Writing and Journalling
Turn Your Journal Into an Altar
Praise
“Grace Quantock is a brilliant new voice in the world of wellness.
Keep your eye on this trailblazer – her life-changing work is driven by a magnetic healing energy and an endless compassion for all beings.”
– Kris Carr, New York Times best selling author | KrisCarr.com
“It’s too easy to get lost in all the health (mis)information floating around the internet, avoid that and start here. I love action and results, so I turn to Grace Quantock for her stalwart healing words – and now you can too.”
– Erika Lyremark, Founder of Lyremark Business Design | Biz, sales & marketing coach | Bestselling author.
“Grace Quantock’s Prepping Your Kitchen for Plant-Based Wellness is a powerful resource for people who are ready to feel empowered and invested in taking radical self-responsibility for their health and wellness.
Jam packed with brilliant information and lovingly-crafted prompts, this beautifully-designed guide will transform your relationship with food and cultivate a feeling of alignment and ease as you navigate your kitchen.“
– Mara Glatzel, Life Coach + Business Mentor at MaraGlatzel.com
“This sparkling dynamo is what real power looks like.“
– Theresa Reed, author of Tarot for Troubled Times
“Grace’s words are filled with authenticity and integrity. She is an intelligent and inspiring woman and her message can lift you up when you’re feeling down.
Everyone should read her…”
– Dr David Hamilton, best-selling Hay House author | DrDavidHamilton.com
“Grace Quantock is a total inspiration. Her writing is a how-to guide to a strong and sensational life with chronic illness.“
– Jennifer Louden, author of The Women’s Comfort Book
“Grace Quantock is an advocate, champion, heaven-sent disseminator of wellness wisdom… [Her work] feels like a wellness-angel sitting down with you, holding your hand through the doctor’s waiting room, surgeries, struggles and joys.
If you do one thing to cope with illness, read Grace.”
– Linda Sivertsen, author of Generation Green
I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
– Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for
may for once spring clear
without my contriving.
If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.
Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,
streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.
As Seen In
