Cells by UEA alumnus Gavin McCrea has been longlisted for the Polari Book Prize. Gavin was born in Dublin in 1978 and has since lived in Japan, Belgium, Italy, the UK, and Spain. He graduated from the MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) in 2009 and gained his PhD in Creative and Critical Writing in 2013. His first novel Mrs Engels was published by Scribe in 2015 and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the Desmond Elliott Prize, and was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Historical Writers Association Goldsboro Debut Crown. His second novel The Sisters Mao was published by Scribe in 2021. Gavin has been commissioned by Hachette/John Murray to write a collection of essays on Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Cells, his first non-fiction book, was published by Scribe in 2022.
