Cherise Saywell

Cherise Saywell is a novelist and short story writer. She was born and brought up in Australia and studied English and Cultural Studies at Queensland University. She travelled to the UK in 1996 and has lived in Scotland ever since. She has published two novels, Desert Fish (2011) and Twitcher (2013) (both Vintage, Australia). Cherise’s short stories have won the Pindrop Short Story Award (2016), the Mslexia Short Story Prize (2015) and the V.S. Pritchett prize (2003) as well as being shortlisted for several prizes, including the Bristol Prize (2019) and the Asham Award (2009). Her work has appeared in Mslexia, The London Magazine, New Writing Scotland, and several anthologies, most recently A Short Affair (Scribner). Her story ‘Pieces of Mars Have Fallen to Earth’ was selected for BBC Radio 4’s Opening Lines programme in 2015. Cherise has been a Royal Literary Fund (RLF) Fellow at Stirling University and Strathclyde University. She now works on the RLF’s Bridge project in secondary schools, and as an RLF Consultant in universities. She lives in Edinburgh with her family.