About

Portrait by Conor Horgan @conorhorgan.

I’m a fiction writer from London who lives between Ireland and Spain. I lecture in creative writing at University College Dublin and have taught at the University of East Anglia, Kingston University and City Lit. I have an MA with Distinction and a PhD in Creative Writing from UEA. I lived in Brazil for three fantastic years in my early thirties, which is where I started to engage seriously – and joyfully – with writing. I read Italian, Spanish and Social Anthropology at Cambridge University.

Born to a Yugoslav mother and English father, I wrote my debut novel Black Butterflies to understand the siege that devastated my mother’s hometown of Sarajevo from 1992-1996. It has been longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2023 and the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award 2023. It was chosen as Indie Fiction Book of the Month in May 2022. It is currently being translated into Bosnian by Lejla Džanko (Buybook, Sarajevo).

I’m represented by the wonderful Sophie Lambert at C&W. Rowan Cope is my talented editor at Duckworth.

writing in the butler room
At the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig, Ireland. I finished writing Black Butterflies here.

IMG_5153
The Goat’s Bridge, near Sarajevo, Bosnia. Zora paints this Ottoman bridge obsessively in Black Butterflies.
At the London launch of Black Butterflies. Photo by @Matthewgammon.artist.

Please get in touch by filling in the form below. You can also get in touch via Instagram @priscillamorriswriter. I’d love to hear from you!