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]

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][7] The novel is narrated by Billy, a mixed-up teenager, struggling to raise his little brother after the death of their mother.^[2][8] 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][9] 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”.^[10]

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.

• Wake Up Happy Every Day. Published by Bloomsbury, New York City, 2014^[11][12]
• Life! Death! Prizes! Published by Bloomsbury, London, 2012^[12][13]
• TAG. Published by Cinnamon Press, Blaenau Ffestiniog, 2008^[12][14]
• Stronger Than Skin. Published by Sandstone Academic Press, 2017^[15]

• The Reverse Is Also True (2015)^[16]
• The Valuation (2011)^[16]
• Ven Y Va (2010)^[16]
• Still Waiting For Everything (2005)^[16]
• Back The World (2003)^[16]

• Get Started in Creative Writing. Published by Hodder & Staughton, London, 2014^[17]
• Write A Novel And Get It Published. Published by Teach Yourself, London, 2012^[18]