Sam Byers

{{Short description|British novelist}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Sam Byers

| image =

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption =

| pseudonym =

| birth_date = 1979

| birth_place =

| occupation = Novelist

| language = English

| nationality =

| citizenship =

| education =

| alma_mater = University of East Anglia

| genre =

| notableworks =

| influences =

| awards = Betty Trask Award (2014)

| signature =

| signature_alt =

| website = [http://www.sambyers.co.uk/ www.sambyers.co.uk]

| portaldisp =

}}

Sam Byers (born 1979) is a British novelist.{{cite web|title=Waterstones 11: Interview with Sam Byers|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9800467/Waterstones-11-Interview-with-Sam-Byers.html|website=The Daily Telegraph|date=14 January 2013 |access-date=18 October 2014}} He was born in Bury St Edmunds and now lives in Norwich, where he studied at the University of East Anglia (MA Creative Writing, 2004; PhD, 2014).{{cite web|title=Creative Writing alumni A-C and published works|url=https://www.uea.ac.uk/literature/creative-writing/alumni/alumni-a-c|website=University of East Anglia}}

Byers' debut novel Idiopathy, a satire based on the spread of a BSE-like disease,{{cite news|title=Debut author: Sam Byers |newspaper=The Guardian |date=21 April 2013 |access-date=7 February 2019 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/21/sam-byers-interview-idiopathy |last1=Kappala-Ramsamy |first1=Gemma }} received a Betty Trask Award and the Waterstones 11 prize. Idiopathy was also shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Book Awards First Novel award, and longlisted for the 2014 Desmond Elliott Prize.

In 2018 Byers published his second novel, Perfidious Albion, "a new media satire that switches into a hi-tech dystopia centred on class politics."{{cite news|title=Perfidious Albion by Sam Byers – review |newspaper=The Guardian |date=29 July 2018 |access-date=7 February 2019 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/29/perfidious-albion-sam-byers-review |last1=Cummins |first1=Anthony }}

In 2021 he published his third novel, Come Join Our Disease.{{Cite news |last=Myerson |first=Jonathan |date=2021-04-05 |title=Come Join Our Disease by Sam Byers review – gloriously nauseating |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/apr/05/come-join-our-disease-by-sam-byers-review |access-date=2024-04-22 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}