Welsh · b. 1965
Carys Davies is a Welsh writer of novels and short stories. She was born in Wales and spent many years in England, working as a journalist before turning to fiction. Her debut story collection, The Redemption of Galen Pike, appeared in 2014, and she won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award for it. Her first novel, West (2018), follows a Pennsylvania mule breeder who goes in search of giant prehistoric animals in the American frontier. It was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and won Wales Book of the Year. Her later novels include The Mission House (2020) and Clear (2024), which is set on a remote island beyond Shetland in 1843 and deals with the Highland Clearances. Clear won the Ondaatje Prize. Her fiction is short, spare and carefully built, often placing a few characters in a remote setting and a specific historical moment.