British Council Literature Seminar

Helen Oyeyemi’s eleven books include What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, Gingerbread and Parasol Against the Axe. She’s a recipient of the Somerset Maugham Award and PEN’s Open Book Award, and her novel Peaces was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. 

She was a member of the judging panels for Granta Best of Young British Novelists 2023, the 2018 Man Booker International Prize, the 2015 Giller Prize and the 2015 Independent Foreign Fiction Award, and has reviewed fiction for The New Statesman, The Guardian,and The New York Times.

Camilla Grudova is the author of the critically acclaimed The Doll's Alphabet, Children of Paradise, which was longlisted for the Women's Prize, and The Coiled Serpent, longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. In 2023 she was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists, a once-in-a-decade accolade.

Eley Williams’ short fiction appears in anthologies including The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story, Pilot Press’ Modern Queer Poets, and Liberating the Canon edited by Isabel Waidner. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, her debut fiction collection Attrib. and Other Stories won the James Tait Back Memorial Prize for fiction, and her novel The Liar's Dictionary won a 2021 Betty Trask Award. 

Her second collection, titled Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good, was published this year, featuring stories shortlisted for the National Short Story Award and broadcast on BBC Radio.

Eliza Clark is the author of novels Boy Parts and Penance and short story collection She’s Always Hungry. She also writes for film and television. She was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, shortlisted for the Women's Prize Futures 10 award and listed on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Europe.

K Patrick is a writer based on the Isle of Lewis. In 2021 they were shortlisted for both the White Review Poetry and Short Story Prize, and in 2020 were runner-up in the Ivan Juritz Prize and the Laura Kinsella Fellowship. Their debut novel, MRS S, was published in June 2023. Relayed in bodily, impressionistic brushstrokes, Patrick’s novel speaks to their sensibilities as a poet: the writing is sensory and tactile, leaning toward intimation and gesture to convey the protagonist’s longing and want.

Sarah Bernstein is the author of NOW COMES THE LIGHTNING, THE COMING BAD DAYS, and STUDY FOR OBEDIENCE, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Giller Prize. In 2023 she was named as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. Her work has appeared in Granta, among other publications. She is from Montreal and lives in the Northwest Highlands.