photo: Lucy Pope
Elanor Dymott is the author of three novels, Every Contact Leaves A Trace, Silver and Salt and Slack-Tide. Her novels are published by Jonathan Cape in the UK, W.W. Norton in the US, and in translation. Her short stories are published in Stand, the Warwick Review and Algebra, and in anthologies such as Xo Orpheus (Penguin USA) and Novel of the World (Mondadori).
She lives in London, where she is writing more fiction and runs writing workshops. She mentors new novelists and academic writers, and works as a reader and judge for prizes administered by the Society of Authors and the Royal Society of Literature, including the Betty Trask Award. As often as possible, she swims in the sea off the Peloponnesian coast.
Silver and Salt
“I loved and admired Silver and Salt. It manages to be both very clever and entirely absorbing. I return to the settings in my mind long after finishing the book, and find myself thinking about the characters as if they were people I knew, while also respecting Elanor Dymott’s way with a sentence.”
Sarah Moss
“Elegant and atmospheric, Silver and Salt is written with a calm lucidity that is both seductive and unnerving. You start to feel that anything could be revealed in that sharp Greek sunlight, and then it is.”
Adam Foulds
Slack-Tide
“Slack-Tide takes us on an urgent journey and kept me reading late into the night.”
Esther Freud
“Captivating.”
Sophie Ratcliffe, Telegraph*****
“It is beautifully written and had me sobbing.”
Alex Preston, Observer
“Dymott’s slim little novel packs a very precise punch.”
Zoë Apostolides, Financial Times
“The Betty Trask shortlist is a rich crop of extremely good books, each of which does something remarkably different, wonderfully new, and reassuringly authentic. These debut novelists are intensely engaged with their craft, conversing easily with their forbears and blazing exhilarating and beautiful trails into the future.”
Elanor Dymott, SoA Awards 2020 shortlist announcement