Melissa Harrison (born 1975) is an English novelist, short story and nature writer.[1] [2]
Harrison was born in Effingham Junction, Surrey in 1975.[2] She attended a comprehensive school before studying English Literature at the University of Oxford, graduating in 1996.[2] [3] After graduating, she worked as a freelance magazine subeditor, while contributing a regular "Nature Notes" column in The Times,[4] columns for The Guardian and contributions to radio and television.[5]
Her first novel, Clay, was published by Bloomsbury in January 2013, followed by At Hawthorn Time in 2015.[6] Her non-fiction books include Rain: Four Walks in English Weather (2016).[7] A third novel, All Among the Barley, was published in August 2018.[8] Her short story "The Black Dog" was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2017[9] and she has contributed episodes to the channel's Tweet of the Day programme.[10] She has also made appearances on the BBC Two series Springwatch.[11] During the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, she began a nature diary podcast called The Stubborn Light of Things which formed the basis of a new memoir published in November 2020 that outlined her move from urban London to rural Suffolk.[12] Her first children's novel, By Ash, Oak and Thorn was published by Chicken House Books in May 2021.[13]
| Year | Title | Award | Category | Result | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | At Hawthorn Time | Costa Book Awards | Novel | |||
| 2016 | Bailey Women's Prize for Fiction | — | ||||
| Rain | Wainwright Prize | — | ||||
| 2019 | All Among the Barley | European Union Prize for Literature | — | [14] | ||
| 2021 | By Ash, Oak and Thorn | Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards | Children's | [15] | ||
| The Stubborn Light of Things | East Anglian Book Awards | Book of the Year | ||||
| Independent Booksellers' Book Prize | — | |||||
| 2022 | By Rowan and Yew | Wainwright Prize | — |