Susan Barker
{{Short description|British novelist (born 1978)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Susan Barker
| image =Susan Barker 2015.jpg
| imagesize = 200px
| caption =Barker at the 2015 Texas Book Festival
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| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1978}}
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| occupation = Novelist
| nationality = British
| period = 2005–present
| alma_mater = Leeds University; Manchester University
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| website = {{URL|http://susanbarker.co.uk}}
}}
Susan Barker (born 1978) is a British-Malaysian novelist. She has written four novels, all dealing with Asian themes. Her book The Incarnations won the 2015 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered prize, and an excerpt from her novel Old Soul won a 2020 Northern Writers Award for Fiction.
Personal life
Barker has an English father and a Chinese-Malaysian mother and grew up in East London. She studied at Leeds University and undertook the graduate writing programme at Manchester University.[http://www.britishcouncil.org/china-arts-literature-sb.htm British Council] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110314195726/http://www.britishcouncil.org/china-arts-literature-sb.htm |date=14 March 2011 }} She writes primarily about Asia.
Career
Barker is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University{{Cite book |last=Barker |first=Susan |url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/460569/old-soul-by-barker-susan/9780241682388 |title=Old Soul |date=2025-02-06 |language=en}}{{Third party inline|date=March 2025}} and the author of four novels.
Her novel Sayonara Bar was described by Time magazine called "a cocktail of astringent cultural observations, genres stirred and shaken, subplots served with a twist".{{cite magazine|url=https://time.com/archive/6671501/sayonara-tsunami-bar/ |title=Sayonara, Tsunami Bar
|magazine=Time|first=Donald|last=Morrison|date=6 March 2005|access-date=7 July 2024}}
Her second novel, The Orientalist and the Ghost was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/dylan-thomas-prize-picks-14 |title=Dylan Thomas Prize picks 14|magazine=The Bookseller|first=Anna|last=Richardson|date=15 July 2008 |access-date=7 July 2024 }} Her third novel, the The Incarnations was described as a "stunning tale of a modern Beijing taxi driver being pursued by his soulmate across a thousand years of Chinese history".{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/transworld-signs-novel-spanning-chinas-history |title=Transworld signs novel spanning China's history|first=Joshua |last=Farrington|magazine=The Bookseller|date=28 January 2014 |access-date=7 July 2024 }} It won the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered prize in 2015.{{Cite web |title=Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize {{!}} Awards and Honors {{!}} LibraryThing |url=https://www.librarything.com/award/2584/Jerwood-Fiction-Uncovered-Award |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=LibraryThing.com |language=en}}
Her fourth novel Old Soul was published in 2025. An excerpt won a Northern Writers Award for Fiction in 2020. {{Cite web |title=Winners 2020 |url=https://newwritingnorth.com/northern-writers-awards/winners-by-year/winners-2020/ |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=New Writing North |language=en}}
Major works
- Sayonara Bar. London: Doubleday, 2005
- The Orientalist and the Ghost. London: Doubleday, 2008
- The Incarnations. London: Doubleday, 2014
- Old Soul. London: Penguin Fig Tree, 2025.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://susanbarker.co.uk/ Author's website]
- [http://www.3ammagazine.com/litarchives/2005/oct/interview_susan_barker.shtml Interview with 3:AM]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110514154226/http://www.authortrek.com/susan-barker-interview.html Interview with Authortrek]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110314195726/http://www.britishcouncil.org/china-arts-literature-sb.htm British Council profile]
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Category:21st-century British novelists
Category:21st-century British women writers
Category:Alumni of the University of Leeds
Category:Alumni of the University of Manchester
Category:British Asian writers
Category:English people of Chinese descent
Category:English people of Malaysian descent
Category:English women novelists
Category:Novelists from London
Category:People associated with Leeds Trinity University
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