{{Short description|English novelist}} {{BLP sources|date=October 2012}} {{Use British English|date=April 2012}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} {{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox writer/doc --> | name = Nicola Barker | image = | imagesize = | caption = | pseudonym = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1966|3|30|df=y}} | birth_place = Ely, England | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Novelist | nationality = British | period = 1994–present | genre = | subject = | movement = | influences = | influenced = | website = }} '''Nicola Barker''' (born 30 March 1966) is an English novelist and short story writer.
==Early life and education== Barker was born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England on 30 March 1966.<ref>British Council [https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/nicola-barker "Nicola Barker"], Literature | British Council.</ref> While she was young, her parents moved the family to South Africa.<ref>Kidd, James, [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/nicola-barker-interview-i-am-just-a-person-that-writes-books-9462095.html "Nicola Barker Interview: 'I am just a person that writes books...'"], ''The Independent on Sunday'', Arts & Books, 16-17, 1 June 2014.</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11272003|title=Nicola Barker: Teetering on the brink|last=Kidd|first=James|date=2014-06-13|work=The New Zealand Herald|access-date=2017-10-19|issn=1170-0777}}</ref>
==Career== Barker typically writes about damaged or eccentric people in mundane situations, and has a fondness for bleak, isolated settings. ''Wide Open'' and ''Behindlings'' are set respectively on the Isle of Sheppey and Canvey Island. Together with ''Darkmans'' (2007), they form an informal trilogy based around the Thames Gateway.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.literarylondon.org/london-journal/september2009/marsh.html|title=Huw Marsh - 'Nicola Barker's Darkmans and the vengeful tsunami of history' (Literary London Journal)|website=www.literarylondon.org|access-date=2019-07-23}}</ref> ''Darkmans'' won the 2008 Hawthornden Prize. Patrick Ness's review in ''The Guardian'' described the book as "phenomenally good" despite it being an "838-page epic with little describable plot, taking place over just a few days and set in...Ashford."<ref>Ness, Patrick: ''Review: Book of the week'' The Guardian 5 May 2007</ref>
Her 2004 novel, ''Clear'', is set in London during David Blaine's ''Above the Below'' 44-day fast in London in 2003.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hickling |first=Alfred |date=2004-09-18 |title=Box of tricks |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/sep/18/featuresreviews.guardianreview19 |access-date=2026-05-26 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
===Awards and honours=== *1993: PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award co-winner for ''Love Your Enemies'' *1993: David Higham Prize for Fiction winner for ''Love Your Enemies'' *1996: John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winner for ''Heading Inland'' *2000: International Dublin Literary Award winner for ''Wide Open'' *2004: Man Booker Prize longlist for ''Clear: A Transparent Novel'' *2007: Man Booker Prize shortlist for ''Darkmans'' *2012: Man Booker Prize longlist for ''The Yips'' *2017: Goldsmiths Prize winner for ''H(a)ppy''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/illuminated-manuscript-novel-wins-goldsmiths-prize-36324302.html |title=Illuminated manuscript novel wins Goldsmiths Prize |work=Irish Independent|author=Laura Harding |date=15 November 2017 |accessdate=16 November 2017}}</ref><ref>Wilton, Pete, [https://www.gold.ac.uk/news/goldsmiths-prize-2017-winner/ "Nicola Barker wins Goldsmiths Prize 2017"], Goldsmiths, University of London, 15 November 2017.</ref>
===Publications=== ====Novels==== * ''Reversed Forecast'' (1994) * ''Small Holdings'' (1995) * ''Wide Open'' (1998) * ''Five Miles from Outer Hope'' (2000) * ''Behindlings'' (2002) * ''Clear: A Transparent Novel'' (2004) * ''Darkmans'' (2007) * ''Burley Cross Postbox Theft'' (2010)<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/dec/27/the-hotlist-2010 "The Hot List 2010"], ''The Observer'', 27 December 2009.</ref> * ''The Yips'' (2012) * ''In the Approaches'' (2014) * ''The Cauliflower'' (2016) * ''H(a)ppy'' (2017) * ''I Am Sovereign'' (2019) * ''TonyInterruptor'' (2025)
====Collections of stories==== * ''Love Your Enemies'' (1993) * ''Heading Inland'' (1996) * ''The Three Button Trick: Selected Stories'' (2001)
====Short stories==== * ''The Free Hand'' (1998) * ''By Force of Will, Alone'' (2009)
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{Wikiquote}} * {{British council|id=nicola-barker|name=Nicola Barker}} * {{iblist name|id=9605|name=Nicola Barker}}
{{International Dublin Literary Award}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Nicola}} Category:1966 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century English novelists Category:21st-century English novelists Category:Goldsmiths Prize winners Category:John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners Category:Magical realism writers Category:People from Ely, Cambridgeshire Category:20th-century English women novelists Category:21st-century English women novelists Category:Writers from Cambridgeshire