Lauren James is the twice Carnegie-nominated British author of many Young Adult novels, including The Loneliest Girl in the Universe and The Quiet at the End of the World. She is also a Creative Writing lecturer, freelance editor and screenwriter.
Her books have sold over a hundred thousand copies worldwide, been translated into five languages and shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and STEAM Children’s Book Award.
Her other novels include The Next Together series, the dyslexia-friendly novella series The Watchmaker and the Duke and serialised online novel An Unauthorised Fan Treatise. Her upcoming release is The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker.
She was born in 1992, and has a Masters degree from the University of Nottingham, UK, where she studied Chemistry and Physics. Lauren is a passionate advocate of STEM further education, and all of her books feature female scientists in prominent roles. She sold the rights to her first novel when she was 21, whilst she was still at university.
Her writing has been described as ‘gripping romantic sci-fi’ by the Wall Street Journal and ‘a strange, witty, compulsively unpredictable read which blows most of its new YA-suspense brethren out of the water’ by Entertainment Weekly. The Last Beginning was named one of the best LGBT-inclusive works for young adults by the Independent.
Lauren lives in the West Midlands and is an Arts Council grant recipient. She has written articles for numerous publications, including the Guardian, Buzzfeed, Den of Geek, The Toast, and the Children’s Writers and Artist’s Yearbook 2021. She teaches creative writing for Coventry University, WriteMentor, and Writing West Midlands, providing creative writing courses to children through the Spark Young Writers programme.
Pronouns: she/her
Contact Information
- Email: laurenjamesauthor@gmail.com
- Literary Agent & Film Enquiries: Claire Wilson (Rogers, Coleridge and White)
- Publicist: Kirsten Cozens at Walker
- If you need to interview an author for a school or university project, you can find an archive of answered questions I’ve been sent in the past here.
Latest news
- Plotting An Unauthorised Fan TreatiseAfter reading the full novel, you’re probably getting an idea of how hard An Unauthorised Fan Treatise was to write. There are multiple timelines and several layers of perception – what’s really going on; what Gottie thinks is going on;Continue reading “Plotting An Unauthorised Fan Treatise”
- Panel for the YA Book Prize with Malorie Blackman, Juno Dawson, Jenny Downham and BooksandquillsThanks to Sanne for the wonderful chairing! It’s hard to do panels in the age of social distancing, but I love that we can reach a wider audience, with no geographic limits. This was a lot of fun (and I’mContinue reading “Panel for the YA Book Prize with Malorie Blackman, Juno Dawson, Jenny Downham and Booksandquills”
- Complete novel is free to read online now!I’ve now finished posting my murder mystery novel online at gottiewrites.wordpress.com You can read the whole thing for free. I’ve been blown away by the response so far – here are some of my favourite reviews: “An absolutely pitch-perfect portrayalContinue reading “Complete novel is free to read online now!”
