Chris Killen
Centre Writing Fellow Chris Killen published
Novelist in residence and MA alumnus Chris Killen's debut novel, The Bird Room, has been published by Canongate.
The book reflects on the agony of true love and unfaithfulness and has been hotly-tipped by critics, including The Guardian's start-of-year round-up.
Chris began writing at the age of 18, and secured a two-book publishing deal after a coincidental encounter with Canongate novelist Stephen Hall at Waterstones Deansgate (where he then worked).
As well as being a 2008/9 Centre Writing Fellow he is a fiction editor at 3:AM magazine, has completed a 100-chapter 'supermarket nightmare' novel as a 'chapter a day' blog, and won the 2007 Manchester Literarture Festival's Blog Award.
Chris's second novel, Indoor Fireworks, is already well underway. He also runs the free monthly readings night No Point in Not Being Friends at the Deaf Institute on Oxford Road, which hosted the official launch of his book on 27 January.
The story of his rise to fame was featured in October 2008's edition of The Bookseller .