Kate Horsley is the author of two novels, ''The American Girl'' and ''The Monster's Wife''. Most of her short and long fiction, including ''The American Girl'', has been within the

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

genre, although her début novel, ''The Monster's Wife'', is historical

gothic fiction Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...

. Horsley is a co-editor (with her mother, Lee Horsley) of crime fiction review site crimeculture.com.

Early life

The child of academics, Horsley had an unconventional upbringing and was educated at home for parts of her childhood. She studied English literature at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and at the age of 21, she moved to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

to take up a scholarship at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

where she studied Medieval Literature. She lectured at Harvard for a year before returning to the UK.

Career

Horsley's poems and short fiction have been published in a number of magazines and anthologies including ''The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime''. Her first novel, ''The Monster's Wife'', was published by

Barbican Press Barbican Press is an independent publishing house launched in 2013 by Martin J. Goodman for "innovative novels that are just too edgy for the mainstream but allow people to break all bounds and find a unique voice." Its titles include Kate Horsle ...

in September 2014. A sequel to Mary Shelley's ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ex ...

'', the novel is set on one of the Scottish

Orkney Islands Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

and narrated from the perspective of the girl Victor Frankenstein transformed into a bride for his monster. Her second novel, ''The American Girl'', was published by William Morrow in August 2016. She teaches on th
Creative Writing MA at the University of Hull.

Awards

In 2014, Horsley was shortlisted for the

Scottish First Book of the Year The Saltire Society Literary Awards are made annually by the Saltire Society. The awards seek to recognise books which are either by "living authors of Scottish descent or residing in Scotland," or which deal with "the work or life of a Scot or ...

(Saltire) Award for ''The Monster’s Wife''. She has previously won awards for her work from Sentinel Literary Quarterly and Adoption Matters Northwest and been shortlisted for an Asham award for short fiction and a Ravenglass Poetry Press Prize.

Bibliography

''Novels'' *''The American Girl''. (William Morrow, 2016, ) *''The Monster's Wife''. (Barbican Press, 2014, ) ''Short Stories'' *'Kissing Hitler'. ''Even Birds Are Chained To The Sky and Other Tales'' (The Fine Line, 2011, ) *'Jungle Boogie'. ''The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 9'' (Robinson Publishing, 2012, ) *'Tin Valentine'. ''Dark Valentine Magazine'', June 2011 *'Star's Jar'. ''The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 7'' (Robinson Publishing, 2010, ) *'Musooli'. ''Momaya Annual Review'' (Momaya Press, 2008, ) ''Poetry'' *'Paper Bullets' and other poems, ''Bliss Anthology'' (Templar, 2011, ) *‘Port-au-Prince’ and other poems, ''The Ravenglass Poetry Press Anthology'', (The Ravenglass Poetry Press, 2011, ) *'Rules for Looking After Ian', winning competition entry, ''Lancashire Adoption Matters'', 2011 *‘A Patch of Grass’ and other poems, ''Erbacce Magazine'', 2011 *‘Eleonora of Toledo laughs at a pantomime dildo’, ''Sentinel Literary Quarterly'' (winner), ''Sentinel Champions 5'', 2011 ''Articles'' *'Interrogations of Society in Contemporary African Crime Writing'. (''Crime Across Cultures'', Issue 13.1 of ''Moving Worlds'', Spring 2013) *'Storyboarding and Storytelling: Literacy and the Short Story'. (''Short Fiction in Theory and Practice'', Issue 2, Spring 2012) *'Radiophonics'. With Graham Mort. (''Writing in Education'', Spring 2008) *'Learning Italian: Serial Killers Abroad in the Novels of Highsmith and Harris'. With Lee Horsley. (University of Delaware Press, Monash Romance Studies Series, 2008) *'Body Language: Reading the Corpse in Forensic Crime Fiction'. With Lee Horsley. (''Paradoxa'', Summer 2006) *'Mères Fatales: Maternal Guilt in the Noir Crime Novel'. With Lee Horsley. (''Modern Fiction Studies'', vol. 45.2, Summer 1999)

References

External links

Kate Horsley's websiteCrimeculture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horsley, Kate British historical fiction writers Living people Harvard University alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Year of birth missing (living people)