Louise Welsh

Welsh studied History at Glasgow University and after graduating established and worked at a second-hand book shop for several years before publishing her first novel.

Welsh's debut novel The Cutting Room (2002) was nominated for several literary awards including the 2003 Orange Prize for Fiction. It won the Crime Writers' Association Creasey Dagger for the best first crime novel. Welsh's second major work, the novella Tamburlaine Must Die (2004), fictionally recounts the last few days in the life of 16th-century English dramatist and poet Christopher Marlowe, author of Tamburlaine the Great. Her third novel, The Bullet Trick (2006), is set in Berlin, London and Glasgow and narrated from the perspective of magician and conjurer William Wilson. Her fourth novel, Naming the Bones, was published by Canongate Books in March 2010. Her fifth novel, The Girl on the Stairs is a psychological thriller set in Berlin, and was released in August 2012 by Hodder & Stoughton. Her sixth novel, A Lovely Way to Burn was released in 2014 by Hodder & Stoughton, and in 2015 a sequel, Death is a Welcome Guest was published.

In 2009, she donated the short story "The Night Highway" to Oxfam's Ox-Tales project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the 'Air' collection.

From December 2010 to April 2012, she was the Writer in Residence for the University of Glasgow and Glasgow School of Art.

In 2011, she participated in the International Writing Program Fall Residency at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA.

She contributed, with Zoë Strachan, a shot story entitled "Anyone Who Had a Heart" to Glasgow Women's Library's 21 Revolutions Project. 21 Revolutions commissioned 21 writers and 21 artists to create works to celebrate the 21st Birthday of Glasgow Women's Library.

She is Honorary President of the Ullapool Book Festival.

Welsh lives with writer Zoë Strachan.

• "The Night Highway" (2009)
• "Anyone Who Had a Heart"