Carys Anne Bray FRSL (née Irwin; born December 1975) is a British writer.
Carys Bray | |
|---|---|
| Born | Carys Anne Irwin December 1975[1] Southport, England |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Alma mater | |
| Notable awards | Authors' Club Best First Novel Award; Scott Prize; Edge Hill Prize |
| Relatives | Matt Irwin (brother) |
Early life and education
editBray was born in Southport to a strict Mormon family. She spent her teen years in Exeter; her father was a local stake president in Devon and Cornwall.[2]
Bray graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English literature from Open University in 2008 and subsequently completed a Master of Arts (MA) at Edge Hill University in 2010 followed by a PhD.[3]
Career
editA lapsed Mormon, her debut novel A Song for Issy Bradley (2014) follows a Mormon family undergoing a crisis of faith.[4][5]
Her second novel, The Museum of You, was published in 2016.[6]
According to The Bookseller, she earned a "strong five figure" advance in 2019 for a novel about climate change, entitled When the Lights Go Out.[6] The book was published in 2020.[7]
Personal
editAt age 20, Bray married and subsequently had five children before deciding to return to education in her 30s. Her younger brother was the late photographer Matt Irwin (1980–2016).[8]
Bray uses a treadmill desk when writing.[9]
Awards and honours
edit- 2010: Edge Hill Short Story Prize for MA Creative Writing[10][better source needed]
- 2011: Scott Prize[10][better source needed]
- 2015: Authors' Club Best First Novel Award[10][better source needed]
- 2023: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL)[11]
References
edit- ^ O'Keeffe, Alice (15 April 2014). "Carys Bray: 'There are a lot of rules; for example you are not supposed to watch films that are rated 15 and above'". The Bookseller. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ Smyth, Richard (24 September 2014). "Carys Bray: 'Until I could be honest about my doubts, I just couldn't write'". New Humanist. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ "Carys Bray". British Council – Literature. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ McCleen, Grace (20 June 2014). "A Song for Issy Bradley by Carys Bray review – admirably unsentimental". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
The book portrays radical religion through the eyes, not of a convert, but the profoundly disillusioned. Bray is wincingly honest and emotions are portrayed with an assurance that comes from understanding: Claire is hoarding 10 pounds a week from the housekeeping money without knowing why; her desire to weep in gratitude as cars pull over during the ambulance ride to the hospital with Issy, wanting not to tell her unconscious daughter stories as she sits in the intensive care unit but memorise every detail of her; Zippy's conviction that her sister's body is completely devoid of "Issy-ness" upon seeing it in the mortuary – all these ring true and make for arresting reading.
- ^ Harris, Shelley (29 June 2014). "A Song For Issy Bradley, By Carys Bray, book review: Portrait of Mormons in crisis … by an insider". The Independent. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
Part of the fascination of this novel is that it's a story told from the inside; Bray grew up Mormon before renouncing the faith in her early thirties, and she shows us this arcane world without resorting to caricature.
- ^ a b Wood, Heloise (29 November 2019). "Hutchinson snaps up Carys Bray's climate change novel". The Bookseller. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
- ^ Berwick, Isabel (7 December 2020). "When the Lights Go Out by Carys Bray — climate anxiety". Financial Times. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
- ^ Duffy, Tom (8 May 2016). "Southport author Carys Bray 'devastated' at death of brother Matt Irwin". Southport Visitor. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ Steiner, Susie (29 June 2017). "Is there any way to avoid writer's butt?". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
Carys Bray, author of A Song for Issy Bradley, writes at a treadmill desk, as does Emma Donoghue, author of Room, and US thriller writer Michael Connolly.
- ^ a b c "Carys Bray - Literature". literature.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
- ^ Creamer, Ella (12 July 2023). "Royal Society of Literature aims to broaden representation as it announces 62 new fellows". The Guardian.
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