Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock (Gowar) - Author Bio

Author Bio
• Birth—1987
• Where—in the UK
• Education—B.A., M.A., University of East Anglia
• Awards—Curtis Brown Award
• Currently—lives in London, England


Imogen Hermes Gowar studied Archaeology, Anthropology and Art History at the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts before going on to work in museums. She began to write small pieces of fiction inspired by the artefacts she worked with and around, and in 2013 won the Malcolm Bradbury Memorial Scholarship to study for an MA in Creative Writing at UEA. 

She won the Curtis Brown Prize for her dissertation, which grew into what would become her debut novel—The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock. An early draft was a finalist in the MsLexia First Novel Competition 2015, and it was also one of three entries shortlisted for the inaugural Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers’ Award. (From the publisher.)