Bath Spa University Writing Graduate Longlisted for Man Booker Prize

Samantha Harvey, a graduate from Bath Spa University’s MA Creative Writing course, has made the longlist for the Man Booker Prize 2009.

Samantha’s debut novel, The Wilderness, is one of 13 titles longlisted for this prestigious £50,000 award in what chair of the judges James Naughtie has described as “a vintage year”.

Samantha Harvey, who lives in Bath, achieved an MA with distinction from the Bath Spa University Creative Writing course in 2005 and is now studying there for a PhD.

She is one of three first novelists on the Man Booker longlist, which also includes the literary heavyweights AS Byatt, JM Coetzee, Hilary Mantel, Colm Toibin, William Trevor and Sarah Waters.

The Wilderness, published by Jonathan Cape, is a powerful and moving story about a man with Alzheimers and his inner disintegration. As dementia takes hold he cannot remember whether his daughter is alive or dead or why his son is in prison.

Earlier this year Samantha Harvey’s novel won the Betty Trask Prize for young debut novelists and was shortlisted for the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction.

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