Ashleigh Morgan
2025/26
Ashleigh Morgan: highly commended entry and winner of The Venetia Constantine Award
I’m Ash, hi! I’m 39 and live in Cornwall with my partner and our two beautiful boys. I’ve loved writing, and have been a voracious reader, for as long as I can remember. Books have always been a huge part of my life. It’s only in the past year or so that I’ve really allowed myself to return to writing properly, for the first time since university, and to take that love of it seriously again.
Tell us about your highly commended novel...
My shortlisted novel draws heavily on the historical fiction I love to read, especially classic Greek mythology and literature, which has always been one of my favourite genres. I wanted to give a voice to some of the women who have so often been overlooked or sidelined in those stories. The Fates are mentioned frequently in ancient Greek texts, yet they rarely get to take centre stage. I was drawn to that absence. Writing about Atropos, the cutter of mortal threads, has been an absolute joy. Her voice felt clear from the beginning. In many ways, she led the story and I simply followed where she took it.
What helped you improve as a writer?
I’m almost scared to say I’ve improved that much haha but honestly I think a big part of it has been learning to stop overthinking everything. I used to get caught up worrying about the perfect story arc, the perfect ending, the foreshadowing, all the literary devices I felt I had to get absolutely right from the start. Once I stepped back and let the character come to me, allowing her to lead the way, the writing flowed so much more naturally. It stopped feeling like something I was trying to engineer and started feeling like something I was discovering.
Do you have any advice for writers thinking about entering Ascent Novel Prize?
Just go for it! It has been a really supportive and exciting process, each round announcement has been filled with entrants congratulating each other and the staff at Ascent have been so friendly. I've really enjoyed the experience and it has been an absolute dream to have even made the top 100. What have you got to lose?
Opening Pages
Prologue
Atropos
Mortals whisper that death arrives in threes, as though fate moved in patterns
they could predict. I suppose my two sisters and I shoulder some of the blame for
that myth. Mortals say many things and, as usual, they are wrong. Death does not
come in threes. Death comes in the night, on the battlefield, or when the innocent
sparkle of winter's frost claims another set of ancient bones. Death comes silently,
without warning. Without judgement, fear or pity. Death comes when it is destined to, and there is no power in this world that can prevent it.
Each thread of a mortal life is determined whilst the child is still nestled safely in the
womb. The beginning, middle and undeniable end are planned out with only the
stars and the Gods as witnesses. Some people find fate a cruel master, but fate is
not cruel; fate does not care. It moves far above the tremors of "good" and "evil", it is
unyielding, unbending and consistent. Inevitable.
When the time comes for a mortal's end, fate does not knock, she does not wait, she
does not weep. Fate comes alone, sharp shears in hand, to simply cut their life's
thread and banish that soul to the Meadows of Asphodel, or the fields of paradise in
Elysium. Some unfortunate creatures, those who were wicked, cold and alone in life,
will meet their eternal end in the dread pit of Tartarus. Fate does not care where their
translucent, fleeting souls fly to. She has had one purpose since the world's first
breath, and that is her destiny.
My destiny.
My fate.
My name is Atropos.