Alexandra Nye

Alex Nye is an award-winning writer. Her first novel Chill (Floris, 2006) won the 2007 Royal Mail Scottish Children’s award, and her first short story won the 1981 W. H. Smith Young Writers’ competition, judged by Ted Hughes. She has published seven novels to date, mostly historical fiction for adults. The critically acclaimed Arguing with the Dead (Fledgling, 2019) explored the experience of early-nineteenth-century women through the life of Mary Shelley. Her latest novel, Even the Birds Grow Silent (Fledgling, 2021) is a collection of narrative fragments told by Death herself during an interview with a journalist. In her writing, Alex explores the fragility of life and the unreliability of memory, as well as the impact of turbulent historical events and how they connect us. She is interested in the idea of deep time and shallow time and how we, as humans, make sense of it.

Alex has spoken at numerous schools, libraries, and book festivals. She has held many residencies through the Scottish Book Trust and the Craigmillar Literacy Trust, is a creative writing mentor and delivered a series of lectures at the National Library of Scotland to teachers on how to use archival material to inspire creative writing. She is a strong advocate of literacy among the young and the disadvantaged.

When she is not writing she likes to walk her dog, swim and keep a sketch journal. She has two grown-up children and lives in Dunblane.