James Scudamore

Novelist, short fiction writer & essayist

James Scudamore is the author of three novels, Wreaking, Heliopolis, and The Amnesia Clinic. His first novel, The Amnesia Clinic, won the Somerset Maugham Award and signaled the arrival of an important new transnational UK writer; it was shortlisted for four other prizes, including the Costa First Novel Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Heliopolis, set in Brazil, was longlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize. His most recent book, Wreaking, the first to be set in the UK, was widely acclaimed. It was described as "sharply hewn, inventively structured and unnervingly written" by The Observer, "relentlessly inventive" by The Sunday Telegraph and "intensely imagined” by The Sunday Times.

He has held two fellowships at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and was on the MFA faculty at City University Hong Kong.  He teaches on The Guardian / UEA Masterclass scheme.

James will be leading his first Authors at Large workshop at the Scotland 2018 retreat. He has had a long association with the Orkneys.