A. K. Blakemore

A. K. Blakemore is a British poet and novelist born in 1991 in London. They studied at University College London and are the author of the poetry collections Humbert Summer (2015) and Fondue (2019), as well as translations of Romanian poetry. The Manningtree Witches (2021, Granta) is their debut novel, imagining the 1645 Manningtree witch trials in Essex — the largest witch hunt in English history, orchestrated by the self-appointed Witch-Finder General Matthew Hopkins — from the perspective of Rebecca West, a young woman ensnared in the accusatory web. Written in a startling contemporary-historical voice that is by turns lyrical, vernacular, crude, and furious, the novel won the Desmond Elliott Prize in 2021 and the Encore Award. Blakemore is known for their formal ambition, their feminist anger, and their ability to make historical violence feel urgent. They use they/them pronouns.