Mark Blayney

Last updated

Mark Blayney
OccupationWriter
NationalityBritish
Alma mater Royal Holloway
GenreFiction, Poetry
Notable works
  • Two Kinds of Silence (2003)
Notable awards

Mark Blayney (born 1973 or 1974) is a British writer. His collection of short stories Two Kinds of Silence won the Somerset Maugham Award in 2004. [1]

Contents

Biography

Blayney graduated from Royal Holloway in 1995, and spent more than a decade working at the Chartered Institute of Marketing. [2]

Blayney has published in a range of genres, including novels, short stories and poetry. His first collection of short stories, Two Kinds of Silence, won the Somerset Maugham Award in 2004, making him the first self-published author to win the award. [1] [3]

In 2016, Blayney became a Hay Festival Writer at Work, a long-term development programme for selected writers born, living and/or educated in Wales. Blayney was one of the first cohort of writers, and completed a 10-day residency at the festival in both 2016 and 2017. [4] [5]

In 2023, his novel Invisibility won the 'Rheidol Prize for Prose with a Welsh Theme or Setting' at the New Welsh Writing Awards, [2] [6] organised by New Welsh Review. Blayney accepted his prize at a ceremony at the Hay Festival on 27 May. [7]

Writing under the name Mark Blayney Stuart, he was nominated for 'Business Journalist of the Year' at the 2017 Wales Media Awards. [8]

He lives in Cardiff, and has taught writing at Cardiff and Swansea universities. He is a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund. [2]

Selected works

References

  1. 1 2 Pauli, Michelle (14 July 2004). "If you want something doing ..." The Guardian . ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 10 February 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 "Mark Blayney". Royal Literary Fund . Retrieved 5 January 2025.
  3. ↑ "Somerset Maugham Awards". Society of Authors . Retrieved 17 March 2025.
  4. ↑ "CONTEXT IS ALL | MARK BLAYNEY, WRITERS AT WORK". Hay Festival. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  5. ↑ "Write by day, laugh by night". Hay Festival. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  6. ↑ "'Invisibility': Mark Blayney announced as the winner of the New Welsh Writing Awards 2023: Rheidol Prize for Prose with a Welsh Theme or Setting". New Welsh Review . Retrieved 5 January 2025.
  7. ↑ Sarah (27 May 2023). "New Welsh Review announces winner of the Rheidol Prize 2023". Nation.Cymru. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  8. ↑ "Journalist and newspapers nominated for Wales Media Awards - Journalism News from HoldtheFrontPage". HoldtheFrontPage. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  9. ↑ Schofield, Emma (31 March 2016). "Doppelgängers by Mark Blayney | Fiction - Wales Arts Review". Wales Arts Review . Retrieved 9 March 2025.
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