Kathleen Bryson

Alaskan-born Kathleen Bryson received her doctorate in Evolutionary Anthropology from University College London. Currently a postdoctoral researcher at Oxford, she studies prejudice and empathy. She is the published author of over 100 fiction pieces, including 6 novels. The most recently published is the fantastical The Stagtress (Fugue State Press, 2019) (“Like a psychedelic Angela Carter for the 21st century, Bryson takes us into the darkest reaches of the forest, only to pull us out again to catapult us into the future. Creation myths collide with apocalypse culture to dazzle the reader into an altered state. In this powerful, liberation paean to nature, the reader can wriggle free from the mendacious venom of the machine-code world and run wild with the horned goddess, where the tree is the first of all gods and suns are older than clocks.” – Kerri Sharp, author of Prada Sucks and Other Demented Descants). Bryson’s previous novels were Girl on a Stick (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2008) (“Sassy, clever, bright, dark, true, and, most importantly, alive. A huge book, and full of goodness" – Ali Smith; “That book is fucking wild.”– Rebecca Brown; “A cross between Tom Robbins and Francesca Lia Block… a viscerally resonating, unnerving anti-love story” – The Oregonian) and Mush (Diva Books, 2001) (“Perfectly captures the never-ending, powerless quality of childhood" – Time Out; “Stunningly good... an atmospheric novel with a slow, filigree beauty and the same gritty heart as the frozen tundra of Alaska in which it is set. Sharply reminiscent of The Shipping News, and as rich in language-play" – Mslexia).

An artist-writer-filmmaker long before she ever was a scientist, Bryson has had 10 solo art exhibitions, including Once Upon a Spacetime at the Royal Institution in London (2019), and has just directed her second feature Baked Alaska (UK, 2019). The upcoming fairytale-themed Love Potion series by DLG Publishing (including the three novels All Bottled Up, Ms. Cupid and the Bees, and The Witching Minute) showcases highly playful facets of Bryson’s writing, hinted at in her more experimental works.