Carys Anne Bray (née Irwin; born December 1975) is a British writer.

Early life and education

Bray was born in

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

to a strict Mormon family. She spent her teen years in

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

; her father was a local

stake A stake is a large wooden or metal implement designed to be driven into the ground and may refer to: Tools * Archer's stake, a defensive stake carried by medieval longbowmen * Survey stakes, markers used by surveyors * Sudis (stake) (Latin for ...

president in Devon and Cornwall. Bray graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) in English literature from

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

in 2008 and subsequently completed a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

(MA) at

Edge Hill University Edge Hill University is a campus-based public university in Ormskirk, Lancashire, England. The university, which originally opened in 1885 as Edge Hill College, was the first non-denominational teacher training college for women in England, befo ...

in 2010 followed by a PhD.

Career

A lapsed Mormon, her debut novel '' A Song for Issy Bradley'' (2014) follows a Mormon family undergoing a crisis of faith. Her second novel, ''The Museum of You'', was published in 2016. According to ''

The Bookseller ''The Bookseller'' is a British magazine reporting news on the publishing industry. Philip Jones is editor-in-chief of the weekly print edition of the magazine and the website. The magazine is home to the ''Bookseller''/Diagram Prize for Oddes ...

'', she earned a "strong five figure" advance in 2019 for a novel about

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

, entitled ''When the Lights Go Out''. The book was published in 2020.

Personal

At 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 Matthew Irwin (born November 29, 1987) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenseman. Irwin played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the San Jose Sharks, Boston Bruins, Nashville Predators, Anaheim Ducks, Buffalo Sabres and the W ...

(1980–2016). Bray uses a treadmill desk when writing.

Awards and honours

* 2010:

Edge Hill Short Story Prize The Edge Hill Short Story Prize is a short-story contest held annually by Edge Hill University. Background The concept for the prize was developed by Professor Ailsa Cox following a 2006 short-story conference at Edge Hill. Candidates must be b ...

for MA Creative Writing * 2011: Scott Prize * 2015:

Authors' Club Best First Novel Award The Authors' Club Best First Novel Award is awarded by the Authors' Club to the most promising first novel of the year, written by a British author and published in the UK during the calendar year preceding the year in which the award is presente ...

* 2023: Elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

(FRSL)

References

Living people 21st-century British novelists Alumni of Edge Hill University Alumni of the Open University English women novelists Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Former Latter Day Saints People from Southport Writers from Exeter Writers from Merseyside Date of birth missing (living people) {{UK-novelist-stub