MARTYN BEDFORD is the prize-winning and internationally renowned author of eight novels and a short-story collection in a career spanning nearly 25 years. His debut novel for young adults, Flip (Walker Books 2011), won four regional prizes and was shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award. It was also nominated for the Carnegie Medal, as were his next two YA novels: Never Ending (Walker Books 2014) and Twenty Questions for Gloria (Walker Books 2016), winner of the 13+ category in the Coventry Inspiration Book Awards.
Martyn is also the author of five novels for adults: Acts of Revision (Bantam Press 1996), winner of the Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award; Exit, Orange & Red (Bantam Press 1997); The Houdini Girl (Penguin, 1999); Black Cat (Penguin, 2001); and The Island of Lost Souls (Bloomsbury 2006). His short stories have been published in newspapers, magazines, online and broadcast on radio, and a solo collection, Letters Home (2017), was published by Comma Press. Between them, his books have been translated into 15 languages.
A former journalist and graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, Martyn has taught creative writing in universities and for the Arvon Foundation since 2001 and is currently a senior lecturer at Leeds Trinity University, teaching on the English undergraduate programmes and the Creative Writing MA. He has been the recipient of two Royal Literary Fund Fellowships and is a lector on the RLF’s Reading Round scheme.
- Areas of expertise: literary & commercial fiction, short stories, young adult fiction
- Locations: Leeds & Bradford
- Possible meeting places: Leeds Art Gallery Café (Leeds), Waterstones Café (Bradford)
Martyn’s website
