Benjamin Wood (writer)

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Benjamin Wood
Julie Bonnie, Benjamin Wood, Alexandre Bompard - Prix du Roman Fnac 2014 (14930195968).jpg
Benjamin Wood in 2014
Born1981 (age 4344)
Occupation Novelist
Alma mater University of British Columbia
Period2012 – present
Genre Literary fiction
Notable worksSeascraper (2025)

Benjamin Wood is a British author and academic who has written five novels. [1]

Contents

Work

Wood's first novel, The Bellwether Revivals, was shortlisted for the 2012 Costa Book Award for First Novel [2] and the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize. [3] It won France's Prix du roman Fnac in 2014. [4]

His second novel, The Ecliptic, was inspired by the three months he spent in Istanbul for an artist-in-residence cultural exchange programme organised by the British Council. [5] It was shortlisted for the 2016 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award [6] and the RSL Encore Award. [7] His third novel, A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better, was shortlisted for the 2019 European Union Prize for Literature [8] and the CWA Gold Dagger. [9]

In 2022 Wood published his fourth novel, The Young Accomplice. It was chosen as a book of the year by The Irish Times , [10] The New Statesman, [11] The Spectator , [7] The Sunday Times , [7] The Times [12] and The Week . [13] A serialised version was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. [14]

Wood's fifth novel, Seascraper, was longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize. [15]

Life

Wood was born in 1981, [16] to parents who separated before he reached adulthood, [17] and grew up in Merseyside. [1] His childhood was spent in a nursing home run by his parents. [18]

As a young man, Wood realised he had a gift for fiction when his sixth-form teacher was convinced that the dramatic monologue he had written for an assignment had been plagiarised from an existing work. [19] At the age of 17 he abandoned his A-levels in the hope of pursuing a career as a singer-songwriter, but narrowly failed to get a record deal. [20] He went on to gain a BTEC in art and design, followed by a degree in screenwriting from the University of Central Lancashire. [21] A Commonwealth Scholarship, obtained in 2004 [22] with the help of a reference from the writer Michael Marshall Smith, [21] enabled him to obtain a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. [23] While living in Vancouver Wood was the fiction editor of Prism International. [22]

After returning from Canada Wood worked for several years as a lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London, [18] co-founding and directing their undergraduate creative writing programme. [7] In 2016 he joined King's College London, where he is a senior lecturer in creative writing. [7] He lives in Surrey with his wife and sons. [1]

Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Benjamin Wood: Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025". The Booker Prize . Retrieved 2025-08-02.
  2. Brown, Mark (2012-11-20). "Costa book awards 2012 shortlists first graphic works". The Guardian . Retrieved 2025-08-02.
  3. Williams, Charlotte (2013-04-10). "Harold Fry on Commonwealth Book Prize shortlist". The Bookseller . Archived from the original on 2016-04-12.
  4. "Everything you need to know about the Booker Prize 2025 longlist". The Booker Prize . Retrieved 2025-08-02.
  5. Youngson, Andrew (2015-09-30). ""You know it's been a great writing day when it's 4pm and you haven't eaten": Benjamin Wood on writing The Ecliptic". Birkbeck Perspectives. Retrieved 2025-08-02.
  6. "Benjamin Wood - Young Writer of the Year Award". Young Writer of the Year Award. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Benjamin Wood" . Retrieved 2025-08-02.
  8. Wood, Heloise (2019-04-11). "Harrison, Hughes and Wood battle for EUPL 2019 nomination". The Bookseller . Archived from the original on 2019-04-11.
  9. "A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better - The Crime Writers' Association". The Crime Writers' Association. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  10. "The Irish Times books of the year 2022: The best titles from fiction and sport to music and art". The Irish Times . 2022-11-26. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  11. "Books of the year 2022". New Statesman . 2022-12-03. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  12. "26 best fiction books of 2022". The Times . 2022-11-27. Archived from the original on 2025-06-19. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  13. "Book reviews: 47 of the best novels of 2022". The Week . 2022-12-08. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  14. "BBC Radio 4 - The Young Accomplice by Benjamin Wood - Episode guide" . Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  15. Creamer, Ella (2025-07-29). "Most global Booker prize longlist in a decade features Kiran Desai and Tash Aw". The Guardian .
  16. "Benjamin Wood". Penguin Books . Retrieved 2025-08-02.
  17. Wood, Benjamin (2015-07-11). "My hero: Jeff Buckley by Benjamin Wood". The Guardian . Retrieved 2025-08-02.
  18. 1 2 Wood, Felicity (2011-10-24). "I didn't want to just regurgitate the same sort of story about students having a wonderful bally-hoo time in their colleges". The Bookseller . Retrieved 2025-08-09.
  19. Vasishta, Jeff (2016-05-04). "Benjamin Wood's Island in the Sun". Interview . Retrieved 2025-08-09.
  20. Randall, Lee (2012-08-11). "Interview: Benjamin Wood, writer and author of The Bellwether Revivals". The Scotsman . Retrieved 2025-08-09.
  21. 1 2 Scholes, Lucy. "Benjamin Wood by extension" . Retrieved 2025-08-09.
  22. 1 2 "Benjamin Wood". International Dublin Literary Award . Retrieved 2025-08-12.
  23. "Benjamin Wood". Penguin Random House . Retrieved 2025-08-02.