Naomi Wood is the bestselling author of The Godless Boys, Mrs. Hemingway and The Hiding Game. As a novelist, her books have won a Jerwood Award, the British Library Hay Festival Prize, and been shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the Historical Writers Golden Crown. Mrs. Hemingway was a Richard and Judy Bookclub pick in 2014 and a Chanel Bookclub pick in 2023. Her début story collection This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things was published in 2024 by Phoenix (Orion), Nagel und Kimche (Germany) and Morrow (US).
In 2023 she won the BBC National Short Story Prize with ‘Comorbidities’. Her short stories have also won the Desperate Literature Tbilisi Prize, and been shortlisted for the Manchester Fiction Prize, the Galley Beggar Press Prize, and a Society of Authors Prize. Her interests are complicated femininity and transgressive motherhood, and how these fit in the modern workplace. She is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.
Naomi also runs her own teaching intensives on novel-writing and short-stories: if you are a writer interested in developing your craft, you can sign up here.
Credit: Christa Holka
NAOMI WOOD 
Hi Naomi – i just finished watching your interview on the BBC – Meet the Author – and thought you were fantastic, especially on that very unfair question at the end!! I am intrigued and will certainly be seeking out your book to read. Best, Kate
Thank you Kate! My first bit of TV, so I’m just glad I managed to get out the right words in the right order!
Loved loved Mrs H. Beautifully written, engaging and totally tantalising. I will now go purchase The Godless Boys. With thanks, Tanya
Naomi, much enjoyed your talk at the Greenwich book festival which has inspired me to seek out both Mrs Hemingway and The Old Man and the Sea. Just wondering if Old Man is the right introduction to H? Which of his novels would you recommend I start with, given I am a writer in my thirties? PS Good luck with parenting – those first few months are tough but it does get easier!
TOMATS is a great intro to Hem! Other than that I’d perhaps suggest to start at the beginning with my fave The Sun Also Rises. Good luck with your own writing! Naomi x