Forgive me for interupting your inbox at the weekend.

Just a quick note to say hello and something magical has happened.

I’m super excited to tell you that I’ve signed with September Publishing to publish my memoir, The Emergency Chicken & Other Stories.

I’ll have loads to share with you over the coming months, including lots of tears, I’m sure, but I wanted to let you all know what was going on.

PRESS RELEASE:

A WRITING CHANCE & NEW WRITING NORTH AUTHOR SIGNS WITH SEPTEMBER PUBLISHING

September Publishing is delighted to announce a major new acquisition for their non-fiction list The Emergency Chicken & Other Stories by Maya Jordan. Told in three parts, Maiden, Mother and Crone, this is a sharply funny, moving and rousing account of a life lived in  (ultimately triumphant) opposition to the limitations of a working-class woman’s life.

The Emergency Chicken & Other Stories is the story of a woman who is told that everything about her is wrong. Wrong for being poor, wrong for being noisy, wrong for being too tall, too fat, too bright, wrong for being unwell and finally wrong for wanting to be a writer… She may look like an ordinary woman but this is the story of a woman who survived poverty and a destructive relationship, raised six children, sometimes alone and was ultimately saved by the library. She is far from ordinary…

Selected by A Writing Chance, a programme launched by actor and writer Michael Sheen with New Writing North to support working-class and under-represented writers, Maya’s work has been performed by Michael for BBC Radio Wales’ Margins to Mainstream and was highlighted by him in a recent Tedx Talk Levelling the cultural playing field.

 ‘A curse on being ordinary! Wrong is not her name. Her name is Maya Jordan. She is a noisy woman and we should fear her.’ Michael Sheen 2023.

World English Lang rights to Maya’s debut were acquired by Hannah MacDonald, September Publishing from Natalie Jerome at The Originate Literary Agency. The Emergency Chicken & Other Stories will be published in 2026.

‘I am so excited to be working with September Publishing and my brilliant agent Natalie Jerome. It’s no exaggeration to say that I would not have written a memoir if it wasn’t for A Writing Chance. The lack of visibility of women like me, as characters or writers of books meant that while I loved reading I was stood outside looking in. Books, it seemed, were not written by people like me, about people like me. A Writing Chance opened the door. This is why representation matters. We need to see and hear all our voices. We all have stories to tell. If we don’t get to tell our stories ourselves, then they tell them about us. And they always get it wrong.’ Maya Jordan

Hannah MacDonald, September’s publisher: ‘Maya’s voice is strong and urgent, but also sharp and sweet and funny. This will be a rallying book for female readers, who recognise those feelings of invisibility, obstruction and exploitation and those harsh, lived experiences at the intersection of class, inequality, danger and sexism. Whether patronised at school or insulted in a doctor’s surgery, every woman can recognise those moments of both insult and ensuing anger and will relish in Maya’s journey to self-realisation.’

Claire Malcolm CEO of New Writing North says: ‘I’m not sure I’ve ever read hunger described so clearly nor understood how the shame of it carries on throughout life. This memoir will speak to those that grew up during the 70’s and 80’s when the effect of gender politics on girls and women and the economic disparities that we recognise today were beginning to form. The memoir is also a triumphant success story about clearing a path for yourself and finding the freedom, words, and perhaps courage in mid-life to put pen to paper. There are life lessons here for all of us…’  

Please contact info@septemberpublishing.org for any enquiries.

The Bookseller – Rights – September Publishing snaps up Maya Jordan’s ‘rallying’ new book