Stephen May (novelist)

Born in 1964, May grew up in Bedford and was educated at Bedford Modern School and the University of Essex.[2][5][6][7]

After university, May was variously a barman, warehouseman, museum attendant, television writer and teacher.[1] He had his first child while still at college after which he spent several years of struggle to support his family.[1] This period of his life ‘largely informs his writing, and permeates through his first novel’ TAG which was on the 2009 Wales Book of the Year Long List.[1] The book also won the Media Wales Peoples Choice award.

May's second novel, Life! Death! Prizes! was published in 2012 and shortlisted for the 2012 Costa Book Awards.[2][8] The novel is narrated by Billy, a mixed-up teenager, struggling to raise his little brother after the death of their mother.[2][9] It earned May comparisons to Dave Eggers and J.D. Salinger.[2]

In 2014, May published his latest novel, Wake Up Happy Every Day.[2][10] The Independent on Sunday's review of the book stated: “He riffs entertainingly on failure … Talk of misspent youth, assassins and obstreperous protagonists belies the emotional core which makes May's books moving”.[11]

Interviewed by The Independent in 2014, May commented: “This country’s spirit is in places like Bedford, where I grew up, Kettering and Ipswich. The type of men I write about live outside big cities, lack self-confidence and rarely feature in contemporary fiction. Even Nick Hornby's characters are more sorted than mine."[2]

In 2016 it was announced that Sandstone Press will publish his fourth novel Stronger Than Skin in spring 2017.