Joe Dunthorne

Joe Dunthorne (born 14 January 1982) is a Welsh novelist, poet and journalist. He made his name with his novel Submarine, made into a film in 2010. His second novel, Wild Abandon (2011), won the RSL Encore Award. A selection of his poems was published in 2010 in the Faber New Poets series. He published first solo collection of poems, titled O Positive, in 2019.

Education Joseph Oliver Dunthorne was born in Swansea, Wales on 14 January 1982. He has two sisters, Anna and Leah.

Dunthorne was educated at Olchfa School, Swansea before going on to study creative writing at the University of East Anglia (UEA). He received BA and MA degrees in creative writing from UEA. In the final year of his BA course, he began writing his debut novel Submarine. While studying for his MA at UEA, he won the university's inaugural Curtis Brown Prize for Submarine.

Career Dunthorne's first novel Submarine, in which a teenager records with comedy and anguish his relationship with his girlfriend and his lop-sided view of the strains on his parents' marriage, was published by Penguin imprint Hamish Hamilton to critical acclaim in 2008. Shortly afterwards, the novel was made into a film, directed by Richard Ayoade and starring Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Noah Taylor, Paddy Considine, and Sally Hawkins. The film premiered at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival, and was shown in London, Berlin and Swansea before going on general release in March 2011.

In 2010, a selection of Dunthorne's poetry was published as part of the Faber New Poets pamphlet series. Publication in the Faber New Poets series is open to poets who have yet to publish a first collection. The scheme also offers mentoring and financial support.

Dunthorne's second novel, Wild Abandon, was published by Penguin in 2011. An account of a brother and sister living in a rural commune, it went on to win the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Award for Best Second Novel. In 2019, Dunthorne published his first collection of poetry, O Positive.

In 2025, Dunthorne released his first non-fiction book Children of Radium, in which he traces back the history of his great-grandfather, Siegfried Merzbacher, a German-Jewish chemist who developed radioactive toothpaste and later contributed to chemical weapons research in Nazi Germany. In examining his great-grandfather's 2000-page unpublished memoir and conducting international research, Dunthorne's book explores themes of historical truth, moral ambiguity, and the complexities of family legacy.

Personal life Dunthorne lives in London.

Publications Fiction

Non-fiction

Poetry

Other media

Film

Radio

"The Accident Report Book", 10 November 2025, BBC Radio Four.