Samantha Harvey

Samantha Harvey was born in Kent in 1975. She studied for an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and also has a postgraduate degree in Philosophy.

Her first book, The Wilderness (2009), tells the story of Jake Jameson, an architect in his sixties, who has Alzheimer's. It was shortlisted for the 2009 Guardian First Book Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the 2009 Betty Trask Prize.

Her second novel, All Is Song, a novel about moral and filial duty, and about the choice between questioning and conforming, was published in 2012 and a third, Dear Thief, in 2014. Dear Thief was longlisted for the 2015 Baileys Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the 2015 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction.  

Samantha Harvey teaches Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and a member of the Academy for the Folio Prize.