Sharon Duggal

Sharon Duggal writes novels and short stories. Her second novel, Should We Fall Behind (Bluemoose, 2020), was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s 2021 Encore award, selected for Between the Covers, BBC television’s flagship book show, and chosen as a 2020 Prima Magazine Book of the Year. Her debut, The Handsworth Times (Bluemoose, 2016), was the Morning Star’s Fiction Book of the Year 2016 and chosen for Brighton City Reads 2017. Sharon’s short fiction appears in anthologies including the Book of Birmingham (Comma, 2018) and Love Bites: Fiction Inspired by Pete Shelley and Buzzcocks (Dostoyevsky Wannabe, 2019). She is working on her third novel.

Sharon appears at literature festivals, conferences and events as a panellist and speaker, teaches creative writing for organisations including the Arvon Foundation, New Writing South and Jericho Writers, and delivers workshops in a range of community settings, often on a voluntary basis. She was the 2018 Creative Future writer-in-residence and has been in residence at West Dean College. Sharon has an MPhil in Creative Writing from the University of Sussex.

Alongside writing, Sharon’s parallel career is in the arts, producing development activities and events for artists and audiences. She’s also one half of the Ruben and Sharon Show, the UK’s only regular radio show with a mum and son presenter team, playing out on Radio Reverb, where she now sits on the board as an Associate Director.

Sharon grew up in inner-city Birmingham as part of a large Indian family; her background inspires and informs her writing.