Jan Carson

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her first novel, Malcolm Orange Disappears, was published in 2014 followed by a short-story collection, Children’s Children (2016), and two Postcard Stories anthologies. Her second novel, The Fire Starters (2019), won the EU Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Dalkey Novel of the Year Award. The Raptures (2022) was shortlisted for the An Post Novel of the Year and the Kerry Group Novel of the Year. She is the co-editor of A Little Unsteadily Into Light – New Dementia-Inspired Fiction (2022). Her work has appeared in numerous journals and on BBC Radio 3 and 4. She won the Harper’s Bazaar short-story competition and has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, the An Post Irish Short Story of the Year, and the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize. Jan’s writing has been widely translated. Her first full length play, an adaptation of the children’s classic, The Velveteen Rabbit will be produced by Replay Theatre Company in March 2025. Her short story collection, Quickly, While They Still Have Horses was published by Doubleday UK in April 2024 and is forthcoming in July 2024 from Scribner in the USA. Jan is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.