Nathan Filer

Nathan Filer is a British writer best known for his debut novel, The Shock of the Fall. This won several major literary awards, including the Costa Book of the Year and the Betty Trask Prize. It was a Sunday Times Bestseller, and has been translated into thirty languages.

Filer was born in Bristol in 1980. He attended the Ridings High School, a large secondary school located in the village of Winterbourne in South Gloucestershire. In 2002 he trained as a psychiatric nurse gaining a first-class degree in Mental Health Nursing from the University of the West of England and later worked in mental health research at the University of Bristol.

He also worked as a performance poet contributing regularly to festivals and spoken-word events across the UK, including Glastonbury, Latitude, Shambala, Port Eliot and the Cheltenham Literature Festival. His poetry has been broadcast on television and radio, including BBC Radio 4's Bespoken Word and Wondermentalist Cabaret. In 2005 Filer's comedy short film Oedipus won the BBC Best New Filmmaker Award and numerous international prizes.

The Shock of the Fall describes the life of a boy from Bristol dealing with his grief at the death of his brother, and experience of mental health care services for schizophrenia. Reviewing the book in The Psychologist, Caroline Flurey writes, "This is a beautifully poignant book, written with sympathy and sensitivity, well deserving of its Costa Book of the Year award."

Filer has written on a range of issues for The Guardian and The New York Times. He has been a panelist on the BBC Radio 2 Book Club, BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking and BBC Radio 4's Open Book, Front Row, All in the Mind and the Today Programme.

In 2015 Filer was awarded the honorary degree of Master of Letters from the University of the West of England and the honorary degree of Doctor of Liberal Arts from Abertay University. These degrees were conferred in recognition of his role in raising awareness through literature and his commitment to mental health care.

He is currently a lecturer in creative writing at Bath Spa University.

• The Shock of the Fall (HarperFiction, 2013; The Borough Press, 2014)

• 2005 BBC New Filmmaker Award winner for Oedipus
• 2006 Literaturwerkstatt Berlin ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival winner for Oedipus
• 2013 Costa Book Awards First Novel Award for The Shock of the Fall
• 2013 Costa Book Awards Book of the Year for The Shock of the Fall
• 2014 Betty Trask Prize winner for The Shock of the Fall
• 2014 Specsavers National Book Awards Popular Fiction Book of the Year for The Shock of the Fall
• 2014 Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB Awards) Best First Novel for The Shock of the Fall
• 2015 Honorary Degree of Master of Letters from the University of the West of England
• 2015 Honorary Doctorate of Liberal Arts from Abertay University

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• "Bath Spa University Lecturer Nathan Filer recognised at the Specsavers National Book Awards 2014". Bath Chronicle. 28 November 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2014. 
• "Writers' Guild Awards: Winners Announced". Retrieved 21 January 2015.