Michael Stewart was born in Salford in 1971. He is senior lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Huddersfield, and editor of the celebrated series of Grist anthologies. He lives with his partner and son in Bradford.

His debut novel King Crow (Bluemoose, 2011) won The Guardian’s ‘Not the Booker’ Prize, and was the only debut selected as a ‘recommended read’ for World Book Night 2012. Subsequent publications have included short, themed poetry collection Couples (Valley Press, 2013) and a second novel, Café Assassin (Bluemoose, 2015). His first collection of short stories, Mr Jolly, was published by Valley Press in February 2016.