Carys Bray

Carys Anne Bray FRSL (née Irwin; born December 1975) is a British writer.

Carys Bray FRSL
Born	Carys Anne Irwin December 1975[1] Southport, England
Occupation	Novelist
Alma mater	Open University Edge Hill University
Notable awards	Authors' Club Best First Novel Award; Scott Prize; Edge Hill Prize
Relatives	Matt Irwin (brother)

Early life and education

Bray was born in Southport to a strict Mormon family. She spent her teen years in Exeter; her father was a local stake president in Devon and Cornwall.^[2]

Bray graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English literature from Open University in 2008 and subsequently completed a Master of Arts (MA) at Edge Hill University in 2010 followed by a PhD.^[3]

Career

A lapsed Mormon, her debut novel A Song for Issy Bradley (2014) follows a Mormon family undergoing a crisis of faith.^[4][5]

Her second novel, The Museum of You, was published in 2016.^[6]

According to The Bookseller, she earned a "strong five figure" advance in 2019 for a novel about climate change, entitled When the Lights Go Out.^[6] The book was published in 2020.^[7]

Personal

At age 20, Bray married and subsequently had five children before deciding to return to education in her 30s. Her younger brother was the late photographer Matt Irwin (1980–2016).^[8]

Bray uses a treadmill desk when writing.^[9]

Awards and honours

• 2010: Edge Hill Short Story Prize for MA Creative Writing^{[10][better source needed]}
• 2011: Scott Prize^{[10][better source needed]}
• 2015: Authors' Club Best First Novel Award^{[10][better source needed]}
• 2023: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL)^[11]