Ele Fountain

Ele Fountain writes contemporary fiction with recurring themes of family, identity and hope. Her books explore subjects which infuse our daily lives, examining the connection between media perception and reality.

She lived in Addis Ababa for several years, where she wrote her debut novel, Boy 87 (Pushkin 2018), about the refugee crisis. It went on to win four awards and was shortlisted for ten more, including the Waterstones Children’s Book prize. Her second novel, Lost (Pushkin, 2020), was a Guardian book of the year. Fake (Pushkin, 2022) explores the influence of big tech on near-future society and was selected as a BookTrust future classic. Her latest novel, Wild, focusses on our relationship with the natural world. Her books have sold to twelve countries worldwide and been nominated for more than thirty awards. She has also written for the Sunday Telegraph, SCOOP, BookTrust and numerous online publications.

Before writing, Ele worked as an editor in children’s publishing where she was responsible for launching and nurturing the careers of many prizewinning and bestselling authors. She had a special interest in debut and translated fiction and was shortlisted for the British Council’s Young Creative Entrepreneur award.

She has discussed writing for younger readers on Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio London, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC World Service and GBC News. She speaks regularly at schools and literary festivals, delivering talks and workshops drawing on twenty years’ experience of writing critique. She is a passionate advocate of reading for pleasure, libraries and the transformational power of words.