Laura Barnett

Laura Barnett is a novelist and teacher of creative writing based in Kent. Her debut novel, The Versions of Us, was a number-one bestseller, Richard & Judy Book Club pick, and nominee for Debut of the Year at the 2015 British Book Awards. The novel has been translated into 24 languages and is being adapted for television. Her 2017 follow-up, Greatest Hits, featured a world-first collaboration with musician Kathryn Williams. Her other critically acclaimed novels are Gifts (2021) and This Beating Heart (2022). A fifth novel, Births, Deaths and Marriages, will be published by Doubleday in 2025.

Laura is also a Senior Lecturer in Fiction at Manchester Metropolitan University, a tutor for Curtis Brown Creative and a former Royal Literary Fund Fellow. In 2017, she gave a TedX talk on writing at Cambridge University. As a writing mentor, she has worked with the charities Arts Emergency and Spread the Word, and the Ruppin Agency Writers’ Studio.