Joanna Quinn was born in London and grew up in Dorset, in the South West of England, where her “brilliant, beguiling” debut novel The Whalebone Theatre is set.
Joanna has worked in journalism and the charity sector. She is also a short story writer, published by The White Review and Comma Press among others. She teaches creative writing and lives in a village near the sea in Dorset.
The Eights (2025) Joanna Miller "A heartfelt, thoughtful and engaging book about the first women students to go to Oxford University - their friendships, their secrets, their ambitions and their opponents - in the tremulous, haunted years immediately after the First World War. Joanna Miller brings 1920s Oxford to life with a vivid immediacy and makes us care deeply about four young women who find themselves pioneers in a strange new world, trying to find a way forward in the aftermath of war. A thoroughly lovely debut that will win many hearts, with its celebration of friendship and the persistence of hope."
Isola (2025) Allegra Goodman "Isola is a finely drawn and gripping novel of survival and faith. It succeeds in making the past strange and real and maddening - and is all the more memorable for that."
The Artist (2025) Lucy Steeds "The Artist is an intoxicating tale of creativity, possession and freedom told by the alternate voices of a young English writer and a French woman who have been drawn into the orbit of a celebrated but reclusive artist. As they circle around him during one hot summer in Provence, both his secrets and theirs slowly come into the light. This is a compelling, beautifully textured and impressively assured debut about the risks we take to get what we want, a novel which asks questions about all those who are painted over by history."
The Modern Fairies (2024) Clare Pollard "Funny, filthy, dancingly clever: a delectable confection of many-layered pleasures. A story of stories, storytellers, and the lurking dangers of fairytales. It reminded me of Jeanette Winterson's The Passion, and I gobbled it all up."
The Safekeep (2024) Yael van der Wouden "An astonishingly skillful debut, The Safekeep manages the rare trick of being both gripping and intimate. A twisting, elegant, intriguing story about the secrets we hide in our homes and hearts - and how it only takes one person to unlock the past."
The Ministry of Time (2024) Kaliane Bradley "Hugely enjoyable: ingeniously constructed, beautifully written, and unexpectedly sexy. It is the rarest of creations: a boldly entertaining page-tuner that is also deeply, thoughtfully engaged with our past, present and future."
Whale Fall (2024) Elizabeth O'Connor "A haunting, unhurried, unusual debut...O'Connor offers a clear-eyed exploration of our tendency to fetishize the rural, the isolated, and what it means to become an object of study."
The Painter's Daughters (2024) Emily Howes "A thoughtful and thought-provoking debut novel that brings to life the daughters of painter Thomas Gainsborough. Emily Howes is a talented writer who vividly evokes Regency England but doesn't shy away from exploring how its glittering society could constrain and threaten young women. An engaging and enjoyable mix of historical fact and beautifully-imagined fiction."
The Midnight News (2023) Jo Baker "This clever and accomplished novel is simultaneously a vivid evocation of London life during the Blitz, where secretaries struggle into work after digging bodies out of rubble; a late-night page-turner that will keep you guessing till the end, and a fascinating exploration of identity - and one woman's fight to hang onto her own."
In Memoriam (2023) Alice Winn "IN MEMORIAM is a gripping and unsentimental love story that brings the First World War to life in a vividly new way . . . an unforgettable novel, one I stayed up all night to finish, with characters I loved almost as much as they loved each other. . . Birdsong for a new generation."
The Snow Hare (2023) Paula Lichtarowicz "I loved this book, though it left a huge crack in my heart. A beautifully written, enthralling story of an unforgettable family caught up in a conflict that takes them all the way to a Siberian work camp. The main character, Lena, is determined and compelling, and the novel a brilliant study of what it means to survive both the best and worst of times."
