Naomi Alderman

Naomi Alderman (born 1974) is an English author, novelist and game designer.

Biography

Born in London, Alderman was educated at South Hampstead High School and Lincoln College, Oxford where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. She then went on to study creative writing at the University of East Anglia before becoming a novelist. In 2007, The Sunday Times named her their Young Writer of the Year.

She was the lead writer for Perplex City, an alternate reality game, at Mind Candy from 2004 through June 2007. She went on to become lead writer on the running video game Zombies, Run! which launched in 2012. She has written articles for several British newspapers, and has a regular technology column in The Guardian.

In 2012 Alderman was appointed Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, England. In 2013, she was included in the Granta list of 20 best young writers.

Her father is Geoffrey Alderman, an academic who has specialised in Anglo-Jewish history.

Works

Alderman's literary début came in 2006 with Disobedience, a well-received (if controversial) novel about a rabbi's daughter from North London who is a lesbian, which won her the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers. Since its publication in the United Kingdom, it has been issued in the USA, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland, France, Italy, Hungary and Croatia. Her second novel, The Lessons, was published in 2010.

Her novel The Liars' Gospel (Viking) was published in paperback in 2012. Reviewing the book, Jewish cultural magazine Jewish Renaissance described it as "an entertaining, engaging read" but found the story it told "uncomfortable and problematic. Your enjoyment of the novel will depend on how you respond to the premise that Jesus was, potentially, an 'inconsequential preacher'". Set in and around Jerusalem between Pompey's Siege of Jerusalem (63 BC) and Titus' Siege of Jerusalem (70), it is narrated in four main sections from the perspective of four key figures: Mary (mother of Jesus), Judas Iscariot, Caiaphas and Barabbas.

All three novels have been serialised on BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime.

She wrote the narrative for The Winter House, an online interactive linear short story visualized by Jey Biddulph. The project was commissioned by Booktrust as part of the Story campaign, supported by Arts Council England. Her Doctor Who novel Borrowed Time was published in June 2011.

In 2012, Alderman was selected as a protégé by Margaret Atwood as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, an international philanthropic programme that pairs masters in their disciplines with emerging talents for a year of one-to-one creative exchange. One result of this was her fourth novel, The Power (2016), a dystopian work influenced by and dedicated to Atwood.