Nicole Love is a bit of an odd blend.

Malted in Scotland. Mashed in Belgium. Fermented in Singapore. Distilled in San Francisco. Aged in Boston. Shelved in Edinburgh.

She was sprouted in Brussels in 1995 and stayed there for the ten months following her birth. From there, she was raised across Northern California - Wine Country, Marin County, the San Francisco Bay, all the good bits - and sometimes Singapore, depending on the whims of her father’s higher ups.

The important thing, her family used to tell her, the thing that will tell people the most about her, is that she was raised by Scots. One from the East. One from the West. Proud, sarcastic, loyal people. People you’d be lucky to know, so long as you don’t piss them off.

She never managed to plant deep enough roots in the States - not in Boston or Manhattan or Los Angeles - or in the second Singapore stint; but she likes to think she’s better for soaking in some sunlight before she packed her bags and returned to bonnie Scotland.

In 2024, she received an honourable mention in the Fish Flash Fiction Competition for “Things That Hurt” and was invited to read in the Republic of Ireland’s Cork Literature Festival, was longlisted in the 2024 Bath Flash Fiction Competition for “Supernova on a String,” and presented her academic paper, “Echoes of Rebels: Singlish and Scots as Linguistic Identity,” at the University of Nottingham’s LTS Conference.

Nicole graduated with distinction from the University of Edinburgh, completing an MSc in Creative Writing. She is continuing onto a PhD at the University of Strathclyde in 2025.

She has seen her work published by Fish, BffA and From Arthur’s Seat.

Love Notes

“Some stand out for the way they land: in Things That Hurt, the reader is left in a state of quandary, or wonder.” - Michelle Elvy (Fish 2024 Judge)