Martin MacInnes

Martin MacInnes’s debut novel, Infinite Ground (Atlantic, 2016), was published to wide critical acclaim, appearing on many best-of-year lists, being shortlisted for a Saltire award, and winning the Somerset Maugham award. The novel follows the increasingly labyrinthine investigation into the inexplicable disappearance of an administrative worker in an unnamed Latin American country. His second novel, Gathering Evidence (Atlantic Books, 2020), about a young family in jeopardy, met with similar acclaim. Both novels showcase MacInnes’s interest in exploring his characters’ place in the organic world, challenging assumptions about identity and ‘nature’, and dramatising contemporary issues such as environmental collapse, invasive technology, and mass extinction.



MacInnes is also a writer of short fiction and essays. His story ‘Our Disorder’ won the Manchester Fiction prize in 2014, and other short work has appeared in publications including Ambit magazine and the White Review. A triptych of nonfiction on ecology and biography appeared in Edinburgh Review between 2013 and 2014. He has appeared on the Guardian’s books podcast, read at various festivals, held a residency at Cove Park, and presented a paper as part of Oxford University’s 2017 conference celebrating the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector.

 He has recently begun writing for computer games, and in 2020 was named by the National Centre for Writing, in partnership with the British Council, as one of the ten UK writers ‘asking the questions that will shape our future’.

Originally from Inverness, and having lived for spells in several countries abroad, MacInnes moved to a small village in coastal Fife in 2019. His latest book, In Ascension (Atlantic Books), has been long-listed for the 2023 Booker Prize.