About

I am a writer living in Worthing in Sussex, UK, where I divide my time between creative writing and academic life. I’ve published two novels with Bloomsbury UK/US: A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar (US National Bestseller, translated into sixteen languages, and longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award) and The Photographer’s Wife (published internationally and translated into Chinese). I regularly write fiction, travel pieces and essays for a range of publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast, and many others.

I am Reader in Creative Writing (the UK version of Associate Professor) at the University of Chichester, where I teach fiction and creative non-fiction. I have a particular interest in ‘Life Writing’. This might include letters, photographs, ephemera, lists, diaries, and any written or visual stuff that makes up a life story. I grew up in a hippie/alternative community, and as a result, I have almost no stuff remaining from my childhood. This led to a life-long obsession with archives or the lack of them. Here is one of a handful of photographs from the early days of hippie life in Crewe, Cheshire. I’m the moody little one.

The weird combination of growing up in a very working-class environment (a ‘council estate’** in Crewe), as well as a counter-culture community (the Divine Light Mission led by Guru Maharaj Ji, as he was known then), has led me to explore class, displacement and place in my writing.

I won the New Writing Ventures Award for Creative Non-Fiction for a piece of creative non-fiction about letters found in Deptford Market. I am currently a Fellow in National Life Stories at the British Library, where I’m exploring the way life and domestic ephemera (shopping lists, catalogues, photo albums …) intertwine with the artistic legacy of a number of unsung female English artists.

I worked in the British Council Literature Department before writing and academia, travelling widely in the Middle East, South East Asia, China, Russia and Europe. I love to nurture conditions that my Welsh grandmother called hiraeth* and my Irish grandmother called ‘running away’. I’ve spoken at events including Hay Festival, Edinburgh Literature Festival, and Hay Segovia. I often chair panels and talks and I run creative writing workshops locally with partners such as the NHS or museums.

Things that matter: I contribute to my local green party because the planet is on fire. My family is a mosaic of neuroatypical individuals and we explore this together. I’m always ready to hop on a train, and I really love the South Downs.

For updates: twitter @suzyjoinson or Instagram @suzyjoinson or subscribe to my newsletter ‘Car Boot Sale Notes’ below.

*Welsh word for homesickness/longing/melancholia

**I am aware of the complexities of the term ‘council estate’ in a British context.