Naomi Booth

Last updated
Naomi Booth
Born
Naomi Rebecca Booth

(1980-11-16) 16 November 1980 (age 44)
Bradford, England
Alma mater
Years active2015–present
Website naomibooth.com

Naomi Rebecca Booth (born 16 November 1980) is an English fiction writer and literary academic. She is currently Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Durham University. She debuted with the novella The Lost Art of Sinking (2015), winning a Saboteur Award, and the eco-horror novel Sealed (2017), shortlisted for the Not the Booker Prize. One of her short stories "Sour Hall" (2020, republished 2022) won an Edge Hill Short Story Prize.

Contents

Early life and education

Booth was born in Bradford and grew up in Dewsbury. [1] [2] She went to school in Huddersfield. [3]

Booth graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English from Cambridge. She completed a Master of Arts (MA) in Creative Writing at the University of Sussex followed by a PhD, supervised by Nicholas Royle. [4]

Career

Booth's first work of fiction was the 2015 novella The Lost Art of Sinking. [5] [6] The Lost Art of Sinking won Best Novella at the 2016 Saboteur Awards. [7]

In 2016, Dead Ink acquired the rights to publish Booth's debut novel Sealed in 2017. [8] Described as eco-horror and science fiction, the novel follows a couple living in the Australian mountains as paranoia grows about a skin disease outbreak. Booth had been thinking about the effects of environmental contamination and pollution. [9] Sealed was shortlisted for the 2018 Not the Booker Prize. [10] In addition, Booth's short story "Cluster" was longlisted for the 2018 Sunday Times Short Story Award [11] and was a finalist for the 2017/18 Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize. [12]

Booth's second novel Exit Management was published in 2020. Exit Management deals with the topic of class as its lead character attempts to escape her past. [13] [14] She published her academic monograph Swoon: A Poetics of Passing Out the following year [15] and contributed to the Northern short story collection Test Signal. [16] Republished in Booth's own 2022 short story collection Animals at Night, [17] "Sour Hall" won the Edge Hill Short Story Prize in the Readers' Choice category. [18]

In 2024, Corsair (a Hachette UK imprint) acquired the rights to publish Booth's third novel Raw Content in 2025. [19] The psychological drama follows the character Grace as she grapples with unexpected motherhood. [20]

Influences

Booth grew up reading Ted Hughes and the Brontë sisters and said Sarah Hall had a "big impact" on her. She also praised contemporaries Jessica Andrews, Tom Benn and Melissa Wan. [3]

Bibliography

Novels

Novellas

Short story collections

Short stories

Non-fiction

References

  1. Turner, Zoe (29 September 2020). ""I wanted the novel to feel haunted by the prospect of hope, without it ever being secured": an interview with Naomi Booth". The F-Word. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  2. Lee, Cara (19 June 2021). "Naomi Booth's Exit Management". Nouse. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  3. 1 2 Smith, Craig (28 April 2022). "Interview: Naomi Booth". Mir. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  4. Tout, Ian (17 February 2021). "Former Sussex English student's second novel receives positive review". University of Sussex. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  5. Rahim, Sameer (15 July 2015). "Book Review: The Lost Art of Sinking by Naomi Booth". Prospect. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  6. Tindle, Dawn (1 March 2017). "Read Regional book review: The Lost Art of Sinking by Naomi Booth". New Writing North. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  7. "Naomi Booth and Luke Wright victorious in the Saboteur Awards". Penned in the Margins. 29 May 2016. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  8. Onwuemezi, Natasha (1 March 2017). "'Gripping modern fable' by creative writing lecturer to Dead Ink". The Bookseller. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  9. Brady, Amy (9 August 2019). "Naomi Booth on motherhood, anxiety and climate change". Yale Climate Connections. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  10. Jordison, Sam (22 August 2018). "Not the Booker: Sealed by Naomi Booth review – a promising debut". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  11. "Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award". The Sunday Times. 11 February 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  12. "The Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize" . Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  13. Bunt, Lydia (13 September 2020). "Naomi Booth: Exit Management review - unwrapping life's unpleasantness". The Arts Desk. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  14. Allan, Nina (23 October 2020). "Exit Management by Naomi Booth review – how to survive in London". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  15. Hughes, Kathryn. "Faint praise". The Times Literary Supplement . Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  16. O'Brien, Kiera (5 August 2020). "Dead Ink and Bloomsbury showcase Northern literary talent in new anthology". The Bookseller. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  17. Bell, Suzannah (26 September 2022). "Animals at Night by Naomi Booth – a cuttingly haunting short story collection". Lucy Writers. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  18. "Short story award success for Durham academic". Durham University. February 2024. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  19. Snow, Maia (22 October 2024). "Corsair snaps up new novel by award-winning author Naomi Booth". The Bookseller. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  20. Chatterton, Amanda (14 April 2025). "Book review: Raw Content, Naomi Booth". nb. Magazine. Retrieved 1 September 2025.