Welcome to my author website. I’m an author and poet and I currently have 6 novels, 3 short story collections and 3 poetry books in publication. My writing tends towards the metaphysical; ghost and psychological horror, as well as surreal and experimental poetry. Here are links to my bookstores:

            

My latest book was published on 15th September 2025:

The Wabi-sabi Doll is book 2 in The Buddha’s Bone series. After many comments for a sequel on Amazon and Goodreads reviews from readers, as well as requests on this blog, I decided to complete the duology by revisiting Kimberly’s dark soul-searching journey in Japan. It was released on 15th September 2025.

            

All my currently published titles:

Two of my novels, The Fairy Lights and The Blue Man, are award winners. You can read more on my award wins and press information page.

            

Stay up to date with my writing:

If you’ve been following my writing and want to get in touch about one of my books, drop a comment below. I love a chat!

Or you can join my newsletter for updates about my new book releases. I only post when I have a new book coming out, so you won’t be spammed!

            

Follow me at:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Goodreads
• Amazon
• Leilanie Stewart Author

            

At a glance:

BBC Radio Ulster appearance on Kathy Clugston’s Arts and entertainment show, The Ticket

News article about Love you to Death in the Sunday World

News article about Belfast Ghosts trilogy in Belfast Live

News article about The Blue Man in Belfast Telegraph

News article about The Blue Man in Belfast Live

Author Shout Reader Ready Awards win – Recommended Read 2024

Chill with a Book Awards Win – Book of the Month

Chill with a Book Awards Win – Premier Readers’ Award

My books available for borrowing at Libraries NI

My author profile on Bookbub

My author interview on Awesome Gang

My author picnic on Jaffa Reads Too

            

Writing in childhood

I started writing as a young child growing up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. At first my writing was intended for one audience member only – me! I wrote a ‘special events’ diary when I was 7 and began writing short stories at 9. One of my stories won a class competition, which gave me motivation to write more.

When I was 12, I began writing a children’s fantasy novel. I finished this when I was 20, while I was a student at Queen’s University in Belfast, and tried to get it published. After 1 full manuscript request, and 5 rejections, I archived this story and stopped writing for a while.

            

Inspiration for my writing: working in archaeology

I studied Archaeology and Palaeoecology at Queen’s University Belfast and began working as a field archaeologist after graduation. Although I was on a writing hiatus at this point, having archived my children’s fantasy novel manuscript, my experience of working in archaeology fuelled my imagination. Although I no longer work as an archaeologist, these days I draw upon my training and experience by incorporating elements of archaeology into my poetry, short story collections and novels (as pictured below).

            

Inspiration for my writing: living and working in Japan

After changing career from archaeology to work and travel in Asia, I began writing again while living in Tottori, a town in Northwest Japan. I found that teaching English to Japanese students, while learning Japanese to get by in my daily life, got me thinking objectively about language and literature, and this inspired me to start writing non-fiction travel writing pieces, followed by poetry and short stories. I lived in Japan for a total of 4 years. Recently I have used the expat experience in Japan as the basis for my Buddha’s Bone series, a duology exploring a ‘dark psychological journey to find light’.

            

Moving to Cambridge, UK and building my writing CV

When I returned to the UK after 4 years in Japan, I lived in Cambridge and began getting my poetry and short stories published in literary magazines in the UK, US and elsewhere worldwide from 2009 onwards. You can see my Magazine and Anthology publication page for links to some of these works. Meanwhile I began planning and writing novels and preparing themed poems into collections, ready for submission.

            

Moving to London and getting my first poetry collection published

My husband and I relocated from Cambridge to London for work, and I began getting involved in spoken word events at the Poetry Society. Around this time, I entered my poetry manuscript for ‘A Model Archaeologist’ into a competition for the Melita Hume Poetry Prize 2014. You can read more about that on my Awards and Press information page. Although it didn’t win, it was longlisted and on the basis of this, I received a contract with Eyewear Publishing to publish the chapbook in 2015. After 5 years, the rights reverted back to me, and I have since released the full collection of A Model Archaeologist under my own publishing imprint.

            

Moving to Belfast and getting my first novel published

After 13 years living in Japan and in England, my husband and I moved back to my hometown of Belfast, Northern Ireland and I began looking for a publisher for my debut novel. Gods of Avalon Road was published in 2019 with Blossom Spring Publishing. This was after 2 years of submitting to numerous small press publishers. I chose small press publishers as, without an agent, I felt I stood a better chance of publication success, and this idea paid off.

            

Launching my own publishing imprint

In 2021 I set up my own imprint under my name, Leilanie Stewart, and bought my own ISBNs from Nielsen, which are registered with the British Library and other legal deposit libraries in the UK and Ireland. (My first published book under my own publishing imprint was The Buddha’s Bone). This allowed me to learn everything from typesetting and book cover design to publishing and marketing a title. It also enabled me to experiment with pricing and keywords to see what promotional strategies worked or not in real time, as well as a chance to reap higher royalties for my time and money invested in advertising my books.

            

Other publishing pursuits: Bindweed Anthologies

In addition to writing and promoting my own work, I’m the Editor in Chief of Bindweed Anthologies, a creative writing publication, with my writer husband, Joseph Robert. Aside from publishing pursuits, I enjoy spending time with my husband and our lively literary lad, a voracious reader of sea monster books.

            

Teaching creative writing and library work

In October 2024, after an eight year hiatus, I started teaching creative writing to secondary school pupils again. My current group are sixth formers at a grammar school in Belfast. Day-job-wise, I also started a new position in a library in November 2024, where I can share my love of books with like-minded readers.

            

Aside from literary pursuits…

Some of my blog posts focus on health-related topics. Back in 2020, I lost 3 stone/42 lbs/18 kgs by doing the keto diet. I also discuss my sugar addiction and disordered eating in other posts, that may be interesting or informative to some readers who don’t necessarily follow my writing.