The Sky is Mine Shortlisted for the Bristol

A primary-school teacher once summarised seven-year-old Amy Beashel’s story as “boring”, and there began a life-long endeavour to write something that would, at the very least, merit an “OK”—though her perfectionism means she would much prefer a gold star (five of them if you’re a inclined to review on Amazon). Inspired by authors, song writers and poets alike, Amy loves words in all their forms and all their glory and will often be found looking at a thesaurus for no other reason than “it’s fun”. Having shoe-horned the phrase “finding her own self-worth” into every possible English-literature essay from GSCE through to university, it’s no wonder that Amy is now writing books featuring female protagonists who are fiercely attempting to do just that. She likes dark stories, complex characters and hopeful (but not too tidy) endings. Her debut novel for young adults, THE SKY IS MINE, was nominated for the Carnegie and Branford Boase awards and shortlisted for the Bristol Teen Book Awards. WE ARE ALL CONSTELLATIONS, a second YA, was described by the Guardian as ‘slyly funny, romantic and filled with unlikely beauty’. Her debut novel for adults, SPILT MILK was published in 2023.