Sarah Moss

Born in Glasgow and raised in Manchester, Sarah Moss studied at the University of Oxford, where she obtained her BA, MA and D. Phil in English Literature and subsequently held a post-doctoral fellowship. During her academic career, Moss has been a lecturer at the University of Kent, Exeter University, the University of Warwick, and the University College Dublin.

After the publication of her first novel, Cold Earth, in 2009, Moss moved to Iceland to work as a lecturer. Her memoir of the experience, Names for the Sea (2012), was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Known for her witty, piercing and deeply human prose, Moss has been shortlisted for various literary awards, including the Wellcome Book Prize for Bodies of Light (2015), Signs for Lost Children (2016) and The Tidal Zone (2017), and the Ondaatje and Polari prize for Ghost Wall (2018). Her 2020 novel Summerwater paints a bittersweet portrait of post-Brexit Britain, whereas The Fell (2021) puts its finger on the pulse of people caught in the pandemic in a masterful meditation on compassion and survival.