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. My memoir, The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things is coming out on the 5th September 2024 with The Indigo Press.

I am Reader in Creative Writing (the UK version of Associate Professor, full title Dr Suzanne Joinson) 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 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 was a Fellow in National Life Stories at the British Library (2022-22), 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 sometimes record oral history interviews for the British Library Artists’ Lives archive.

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 - will travel anywhere! - but likewise, I love home and the South Downs.

For updates: Instagram @suzyjoinson or subscribe to my newsletter below.

*Welsh word for homesickness/longing/melancholia

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