Susan Barker

Lecturer in Creative Writing (Fiction)

Susan Barker grew up in east London. After graduating from the University of Leeds with a degree in philosophy she spent two years teaching English in Kyoto, Japan. When she returned to the UK she studied on the creative writing MA at the University of Manchester, and completed her first novel Sayonara Bar, which was published in 2005 (Doubleday, UK, St Martins Press, US). Her second novel, The Orientalist and the Ghost, which is set in colonial and post-colonial Malaysia, was published in 2008.

Her third novel The Incarnations (Doubleday, UK, 2014, Simon and Schuster, US, 2015) is about a taxi driver in contemporary Beijing and interwoven with tales from the Tang Dynasty, the invasion of Genghis Khan, the Ming Dynasty, the Opium War, and the Cultural Revolution. While writing The Incarnations she spent several years living in Beijing, researching modern and imperial China. Susan joined the Centre for New Writing in 2016 as a Lecturer in Creative Writing.

• Visit Susan Barker's website
• Read about The Incarnations on the Guardian website
• View Susan Barker's Manchester Literature Festival 2016 event

Susan's novels

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  The Incarnations

  A New York Times Notable Book of 2015 (Fiction and Poetry) and a Kirkus Reviews Top 10 Book of 2015 (Literary Fiction).

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  The Orientalist and the Ghost

  Susan's second novel was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize (2008).

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  Sayonara Bar

  Shortlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award (2006) and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize (2006).