Michael Stewart is a multi-award winning writer, born and brought up in Salford, who moved to Yorkshire in 1995 and is now based in Bradford. He has written several full-length stage plays, one of which, Karry Owky, was joint winner of the King’s Cross Award for New Writing, as well as securing work in radio and television.
He was the winner of the BBC Short Range competition in 2002 and the BBC Alfred Bradley Award in 2003 and his plays have been performed in Bradford, Leeds, Manchester, London, and extensively throughout the country. His radio play Excluded was shortlisted for the Imison Award 2008. Space Circus, a co-written play for Chol Theatre, was shortlisted for the Brian Way 2009.
He was writer-in-residence at Theatre in the Mill in Bradford (2005-2008), and is now Head of Creative Writing at the University of Huddersfield, where he is editor of Grist Books and director of the Yorkshire Film and Television School.
His debut novel, King Crow, was published in January 2011 by Bluemoose Books. In October 2011, the book was awarded the Not the Booker prize by The Guardian newspaper, and has garnered many excellent reviews. Read more here. It was selected for the Read Regional campaign and as a recommended read for World Book Night.
Couples, his first collection of poetry, was published by Valley Press on Valentine’s Day 2013. More info here.
His other books include, Café Assassin (novel: Bluemoose Books); Mr Jolly (short fiction: Valley Press); Four Letter Words (short fiction: Wrecking Ball Press); Ill Will: The Untold Story of Heathcliff (novel: HarperCollins); Walking the Invisible (hybrid memoir: HarperCollins); The Dogs (poetry: Smokestack Books). His latest novel, The Last Wolf, is published by HarperCollins in 2024.
He is also the creator of the Brontë Stones project, four monumental stones situated in the landscape between the birthplace and the parsonage, inscribed with poems by Kate Bush, Carol Ann Duffy, Jeanette Winterson and Jackie Kay. He has appeared extensively across mainstream media including BBC Countryfile, BBC Breakfast and several Channel Four and Five arts programmes. Find him on Twitter/X @headspam, or Instagram @michaelstewartwriter
