Full profile
Helen Sedgwick is a cross-genre author of literary fiction, science fiction and folk horror. She writes about human connection across time and space, juxtaposing science with the supernatural and realism with ghost story. Her debut, The Comet Seekers (Harvill Secker 2016), was selected as a best book of 2016 by The Herald and her sci-fi novel The Growing Season (Harvill Secker 2017) was shortlisted for the Scottish Fiction Book of the Year. Most recently she has written a folk horror crime trilogy, The Burrowhead Mysteries (Point Blank 2020-2022): When the Dead Come Calling, Where the Missing Gather and What Doesn’t Break Us.
Before becoming a writer, Helen was a research scientist, gaining a PhD in physics from Edinburgh University and going on to work as a bioengineer. In 2021, she was awarded the Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship to write an interplanetary science fiction series about rebuilding after environmental collapse and finding hope through quantum entanglement. She is interested in subverting both gender and genre expectation, chronic illness, accessibility, and increasing inclusivity throughout the literary sector.