Adelle Stripe
Adelle Stripe is an author and journalist whose writing explores working-class culture, hidden histories, popular music, and smalltown life.
Adelle’s debut novel, Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile, was based on the life and work of Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar. Described by David Peace as ‘one of the great debut novels of the century,’ Black Teeth was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Portico Prize for Literature. A new edition was recently republished by Virago Press.
Her second book, Ten Thousand Apologies, was shortlisted for the Penderyn Music Book Prize. Co-written with Lias Saoudi, the biography charts the rise, fall and eventual salvage of one of the UK’s most controversial bands. It was a Rough Trade book of the year and a Sunday Times bestseller.
Told through a prism of vintage perfumes, Base Notes is her poetic, poignant, and bleakly comic coming-of-age memoir set in the closing years of the late 20th century. Snapshots of wild abandon and dead-end jobs pepper this evocative tale of metamorphosis, with a wry clear-eyed account of maternal conflict, compassion, and ultimately, acceptance. It is a Telegraph book of the year.
As a journalist, Adelle has contributed to The Quietus, Yorkshire Post, Tribune, Record Collector, TLS and many more. She was a Burgess Fellow at the University of Manchester in 2023 and holds an MA and PhD in Creative Writing.
She lives in West Yorkshire, UK.
Photo credit: Carolyn Mendelsohn
