{{short description|British author|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{Use British English|date=May 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Amy Arnold | image = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing brackets --> | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = | birth_name = Amy Catherine Smith | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1974|10|06|df=y}} | birth_place = Oxford, UK | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (DEATH date then BIRTH date) --> | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Novelist | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = ''Slip of a Fish'' | website = {{URL|amy-arnold-writer.com}} }}
'''Amy Arnold''' (born 6 October 1974) is a British novelist. Her debut novel won the Northern Book Prize. She has been shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and twice for the Goldsmiths Prize.
==Life== Arnold was born in Oxford in 1974.<ref name="aos">{{cite web |title=Amy Arnold |url=https://www.andotherstories.org/authors/amy-arnold/ |website=And Other Stories |access-date=8 March 2025}}</ref> She has degrees in psychology and music and studied postgraduate neuropsychology at Birmingham University.<ref>{{cite web |title=Arnold, Amy |url=https://www.johnsonandalcock.co.uk/arnold-amy |website=Johnson and Alcock |access-date=8 March 2025}}</ref> She has worked as a lecturer and teacher and in other jobs including packing swedes.<ref>{{cite web |title=Amy Arnold |url=https://granta.com/contributor/amy-arnold/ |website=Granta |access-date=8 March 2025}}</ref> She lives in Cumbria.<ref name="aos" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Charlesworth |first1=Antonia |title=Author Q&A: Amy Arnold |url=https://www.bigissuenorth.com/reading-room/2018/12/author-qa-amy-arnold/ |website=Big Issue North |access-date=8 March 2025 |date=17 Dec 2018}}</ref>
==Writing career== Arnold's unpublished debut novel, ''Slip of a Fish'', was awarded the inaugural Northern Book Prize in 2018.<ref name="nbp">{{cite web |title=Northern Book Prize |url=https://www.andotherstories.org/northern-book-prize/ |website=And Other Stories |access-date=8 March 2025}}</ref> The prize was set up by Sheffield publisher And Other Stories for unpublished book-length fiction or literary non-fiction by northern English writers or with a strong northern English connection.<ref name="nbp" /> ''Slip of a Fish'' was published by And Other Stories in the same year. Narrated in a stream of consciousness style by a vulnerable woman, Ash, it details her increasing withdrawal from reality. "Slip of a fish" is a phrase used by Ash to describe her daughter, Charlie, whom she takes swimming in a lake where swimming is prohibited. Stevie Davies, writing in The Guardian, described the novel as ambitious and remarkably original but noted that its ambiguity could leave the reader floundering.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Davies |first1=Stevie |title=Slip of a Fish by Amy Arnold review – immersive debut makes a splash |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/22/slip-of-a-fish-by-amy-arnold-review |website=The Guardian |access-date=8 March 2025 |date=22 November 2018}}</ref> In 2019, it was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize.<ref>{{cite web|author=Ellen Peirson-Hagger|date=2 October 2019|title=Small literary presses dominate the Goldsmiths Prize shortlist|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2019/10/small-literary-presses-dominate-goldsmiths-prize-shortlist|work=New Statesman|accessdate=8 March 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Heloise Wood|date=13 November 2019|title=Lucy Ellman 'masterpiece' wins Goldsmiths Prize|url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/lucy-ellman-goldsmiths-prize-ducks-newburyport-1113201|work=The Bookseller|accessdate=8 March 2025}}</ref>
Arnold's second novel, ''Lori & Joe'', was published in 2023.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fraser |first=Katie |date=2023-01-16 |title=Prototype lands Arnold's 'deeply moving' second novel |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/prototype-lands-arnolds-deeply-moving-second-novel |access-date=2023-10-04 |website=The Bookseller |language=En}}</ref> Again written in a stream-of-consciousness style, it follows Lori's thoughts after she finds husband Joe dead, revealing the history of their marriage as she takes a day-long walk in the hills.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Peake-Tomkinson |first1=Alex |title=Foul Jabs |url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/regular-features/in-brief/lori-and-joe-amy-arnold-book-review-alex-peake-tomkinson |website=The TLS |access-date=8 March 2025 |date=22 March 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Rose |first1=CD |title=Lori and Joe |url=https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/lori-joe/ |website=3:AM Magazine |access-date=8 March 2025 |date=17 March 2023}}</ref> It gave Arnold her second shortlisting for the Goldsmiths Prize.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Goldsmiths Prize |url=https://www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-prize/ |access-date=2023-10-04 |website=Goldsmiths, University of London |language=en}}</ref> It was also shortlisted for the 2024 James Tait Black Memorial Prize.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jackson |first1=Lucy |title=James Tait Black Prizes shortlist announced - see the full list |url=https://www.thenational.scot/news/24212300.james-tait-black-prizes-shortlist-announced---see-full-list/ |website=The National |access-date=8 March 2025 |date=27 March 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Love and loss illuminates book prize shortlist |url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2024/love-and-loss-illuminates-book-prize-shortlist |website=University of Edinburgh |access-date=8 March 2025 |date=26 March 2024}}</ref>
== Works == * 2018 ''Slip of a Fish.'' And Other Stories, UK. {{ISBN|9781911508526}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42118975-slip-of-a-fish |title=Slip of a Fish by Amy Arnold |publisher=goodreads.com |date=1 November 2018|accessdate=3 June 2019}}</ref> * 2023 ''Lori & Joe.'' Prototype Publishing, UK. {{ISBN|9781913513399}}
== Awards == * (2018) Northern Book Prize (won) * (2019) Goldsmiths Prize (shortlisted) * (2023) Goldsmiths Prize (shortlisted) * (2024) James Tait Black Memorial Prize (shortlisted)
==References== {{Reflist}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold, Amy}} Category:Living people Category:1974 births Category:21st-century English women novelists Category:21st-century English novelists Category:Writers from Oxford Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham