Suzannah‘s first published fiction was a short story in the Edinburgh Review in 1987; her latest novel, ‘Levitation for Beginners’, was shortlisted for the 2024 Nero novel of the year award.
She has published thirteen novels and two collections of short fiction.
Growing up just outside London, the eldest of four, her dad a printer and mum a homemaker, she was and is the only one from her family to have stayed in education post-16. She went to Cambridge to study philosophy, gave it up for sociology and politics, then gave up on a PhD in the history of medicine to concentrate on writing fiction. Her first novel, featuring a junior doctor working a weekend on call, won a Betty Trask award.
Working initially in adult social care and as a literacy tutor, she now has decades of experience of tutoring and mentoring creative writing in all kinds of settings with writers of all levels of confidence and skills, including five years as programme director of Manchester University’s MA in Novel Writing. Currently, she teaches mostly for Curtis Brown Creative.
She lives in Wiltshire, not far from Bath, with David Kendall, founder of Penned Up, with whom she has a son and a dog.
Her agent is Antony Topping atopping@greeneheaton.co.uk, and her publicist is Grace.Vincent@littlebrown.co.uk