Susan Barker
Novelist
About
Susan Barker is a novelist. Her first novel Sayonara Bar (Doubleday, 2005) was set in a hostess bar in Osaka, Japan, and her second novel The Orientalist and the Ghost (Doubleday, 2008) was set in colonial and post-colonial Malaysia. Both books were longlisted for the Dylan Thomas prize. Her third novel The Incarnations (Doubleday, July 2014) is about a taxi driver in contemporary Beijing and is 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 China and the other historical eras in the book.
She has an MA in novel writing from the University of Manchester (2004), and has been a recipient of two Arts Council grants and a Society of Authors award.
More from Susan Barker
How I Write, part 5
In ‘How I Write’, RLF writers reveal how they try and fail to beat distraction. In this installment of ‘How…
My Hero, part 1
In ‘My Hero’, RLF writers tell us about personal heroes and the impact they’ve had. In ‘My Hero’, we talk…
Susan Barker
Susan Barker speaks with Cherise Saywell about international origins, her organic writing process and living in Japan and China. Susan…
Writing vs Life: A Delicate Matter
In ‘Writing vs Life: A Delicate Matter’, RLF writers speak about real material, privacy and impact on personal life. In…
Susan Barker – Life-changing Literature
In the supermarket, in the video rental store, in McDonalds, schoolchildren would call out my name and say hello. It…
Susan Barker – Why I Write
I wrote more to occupy my time and because writing was an activity suited to my hyperactive imagination and love…
Susan Barker
Novelist
Posts
- University of Manchester, 2017–2019
- Leeds Trinity University, 2010–2012