Steph Swainston

Stephanie Jane Swainston (born 1974) is a British literary fantasy/science fiction author, known for the Castle series. Her debut novel, The Year of Our War, won the 2005 Crawford Award and a nomination for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Biography Swainston was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1974. She attended St Joseph's Catholic College, Bradford, followed by Girton College, Cambridge, and the University of Wales. Outside writing, Swainston has had a broad range of occupations, which include bookseller, archaeologist, lock keeper, information scientist, and pyrotechnician.

Swainston's novels to date take place in the Fourlands, which the author has described as a secret childhood paracosm, further influenced by aspects of her later adult life, including the competitive academic world. Her writing, unlike most works classified as traditional fantasy, depicts drug use and graphic sex scenes, alongside the hyper-realistic depiction of warfare. but subsequently returned to writing. Her fifth novel, Fair Rebel, was published in 2016.