Career
His first novel, The Intimates, was a Recommended Title for New Writing North's 2011 Read Regional Campaign. Culture Magazine called it 'unusually stylised for contemporary fiction.'
Mankowski's second novel, Letters from Yelena, was described by New Books Magazine as having 'shades of The Red Shoes and The Black Swan.' The novel was given Arts Council funding, allowing Mankowski to be ‘given access to observe the work of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet’ in Saint Petersburg for research purposes’. The choreographer Dora Frankel created a dance based on the book. An excerpt of the novel was used as GCSE training material by Osiris Educational. His third novel, How I Left The National Grid, was written as part of his PhD. His academic research applied the theory of Self-fashioning to the punk movement, re-appropriating it as 'self-design'. The book was discussed on the North East Arts and Culture Show. Of the novel, The Huffington Post stated the book captures 'the psychology of fan obsession.' The Glasgow Review Of Books described it as a novel 'about the pitfalls of externally defined identity...the theme is spread widely, but slightly thinly, with variance in how well fleshed [characters] are.' Louder Than War said the novel 'is more about the pop fan's urge to remember.' In 2015 he also edited the memoir of banking whistle-blower Paul Moore (banking manager). An Honest Deceit was a New Writing North Read Regional 2018 title.
"Dead Rock Stars" concerns the wild summer of a teenage boy struggling to get over the death of his sister. Louder Than War (website) called it 'fiction that uses alternative pop music as [its] guiding light.' 'Albion's Secret History: Snapshots of England's Pop Rebels and Outsiders' was reviewed by PopMatters, who wrote 'this book is about celebrating the unsung.' Midwest Book Review said, 'Mankowski looks at those who have really shaped Albion's secret history, not just its oft-quoted official cultural history.' Mankowski did a TED (conference) talk on his opening of the unseen archive of Kristen Pfaff of Hole (band). Mankowski told No Treble magazine, 'Jason Pfaff offered to share with me his sister’s unopened archive.' His biography of Kristen Pfaff was published in two volumes on Substack in 2024 and 2025 and examines the final hours of her life. Excerpts were published by 3:AM Magazine and No Treble magazine. Mankowski is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Lincoln.
