Wikipedia

Julia Armfield

Julia Armfield (born 1990) is an English author. She is known for her novels Our Wives Under the Sea (2022) and Private Rites (2024).

Julia Armfield
Born (1990-07-26) 26 July 1990 (age 35)
London, England
OccupationAuthor
Alma materRoyal Holloway, University of London (MA)
Years active2019–present
Notable worksOur Wives Under the Sea
Notable awardsPolari Prize
2022 Our Wives Under the Sea
Spouse
Rosalie Bower
​
(m. 2023)​
Website
juliaarmfield.co.uk

Early life and education

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Armfield was born in 1990 in London[1] and raised in Cobham, Surrey.[2] She attended Lady Eleanor Holles School.[3] Her mother was a stage manager and her father worked in London. Her brother is an actor at the Royal Shakespeare Company.[2]

Armfield earned a master's degree in Victorian art and literature from Royal Holloway, University of London.[1][4] Her thesis was on "teeth, hair, and nails in the Victorian imagination."[2][4] She has cited H.P. Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson, and Stephen King as influences.[5]

Career

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After attending a Curtis Brown creative writing course,[6] Armfield began writing short stories while working as an education manager at Inner Temple. After being longlisted for the Deborah Rogers prize, her short story "The Great Awake" won the White Review prize in 2018.[2][7] Her first collection of short stories, salt slow, was published in 2019.[8] It featured "The Great Awake", as well as eight other horror stories with a focus on female adolescence as body horror.[5] Her short story "Longshore Drift" was selected for the Pushcart Prize anthology in 2021.[9]

Our Wives Under the Sea, Armfield's debut novel, was published in 2022. It follows Miri and her wife Leah, a marine biologist who displays strange symptoms after returning from a deep sea exploration.[10][11] The novel won the Polari Prize and was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction.[12][13]

Armfield's second novel Private Rites is loosely based on Shakespeare's play King Lear. It follows three sisters struggling to cope with their father's death amidst a climate crisis characterized by constant rain and rising flood waters.[14] The Guardian called the novel "brilliantly audacious," praising how "it never commits to an apocalyptic vision, even as the world it depicts becomes cartoonishly apocalyptic."[15]

On 26 June 2025, 4th Estate announced it had acquired two further books by Armfield. The first, Up To the Light, is described as "the story of two climbers, Liam and Petal, and their ill-fated attempt to conquer a previously unclimbed route in the Swiss Alps"[16] and is expected to be released in spring 2027.[17]

Awards

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Year Title Award Category Result Ref
2018 "The Great Awake" The White Review Short Story Prize Won [18][19]
2022 Our Wives Under the Sea Goodreads Choice Awards Debut Novel Nominated [20]
Horror Nominated [21]
Foyles Book of the Year Fiction Nominated [22]
2023 Kitschies Golden Tentacle (Debut Novel) Won [23]
Lambda Literary Award Lesbian Fiction Shortlisted [13]
Polari Prize — Won [12]
2025 Private Rites Climate Fiction Prize — Longlisted [24]
Arthur C. Clarke Award — Shortlisted [25]

Bibliography

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References

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  1. 1 2 "A Chat With: Julia Armfield". Nota Bene Prize. Archived from the original on 19 February 2024. Retrieved 25 June 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Cosslett, Rhiannon Lucy (30 May 2019). "Julia Armfield: 'There's freedom in the monster being the norm'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 May 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
  3. ↑ "Julia Armfield Shortlisted for Top Literary Award". Holles Connect. 16 October 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2025.
  4. 1 2 Wyver, Kate (1 March 2022). "Our Wives Under the Sea author Julia Armfield: 'Horror and romance spring from the same core'". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
  5. 1 2 Broughton, Ellie (19 November 2019). "'Salt Slow' Finds Liberation in Monstrous Women". Electric Lit. Archived from the original on 23 December 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
  6. ↑ Meinertzhagen, Peter (21 October 2019). "Julia Armfield interview: 'I find horror films bizarrely comforting'". Sublime Horror. Archived from the original on 13 January 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
  7. ↑ "The White Review Short Story Prize 2020". The White Review. December 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2026.
  8. ↑ "salt slow". Macmillan Publishers. Retrieved 12 April 2026.
  9. ↑ "Three Granta Winners of Pushcart Prize XLV". Granta. Retrieved 12 April 2026.
  10. ↑ Torres, Leila (24 February 2025). "Can horror be romantic?: a conversation with Julia Armfield". Medium. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
  11. ↑ Allport, Zander (4 October 2022). "A Leaky Manual on Living with Uncertainty: On Julia Armfield's 'Our Wives Under the Sea'". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 12 April 2026.
  12. 1 2 Creamer, Ella (24 November 2023). "Julia Armfield and Jon Ransom win the Polari prizes for LGBTQ+ books". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 November 2023. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
  13. 1 2 "Seán Hewitt and Julia Armfield shortlisted for Lambda Literary Awards 2023". rcwlitagency.com. 16 March 2023. Retrieved 12 April 2026.
  14. ↑ Self, John (5 June 2024). "Private Rites by Julia Armfield – a dystopian world where it always rains". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 17 June 2024. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
  15. ↑ Feigel, Lara (20 June 2024). "Private Rites by Julia Armfield review – in deep water". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 20 June 2024. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
  16. ↑ Wood, Heloise (26 June 2025). "Fourth Estate signs two more titles from Julia Armfield". The Bookseller. Retrieved 4 November 2025.
  17. ↑ "4th Estate scales two book deal with Julia Armfield". HarperCollins UK Corporate. 26 June 2026. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  18. ↑ "Julia Armfield - Bio". The White Review. Retrieved 4 November 2025.
  19. ↑ "Issue No. 23 - October 2018". The White Review. Retrieved 4 November 2025.
  20. ↑ "Announcing the Goodreads Choice Winner in Best Debut Novel!". Goodreads. Retrieved 12 April 2026.
  21. ↑ "Announcing the Goodreads Choice Winner in Best Horror!". Goodreads. Retrieved 12 April 2026.
  22. ↑ "Julia Armfield, Seán Hewitt and Katherine Rundell shortlisted for Foyles Book of the Year 2022". RCW Literary Agency. 15 November 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2026.
  23. ↑ "The Kitschies 2023". Science Fiction Awards Database. Retrieved 4 November 2025.
  24. ↑ Knight, Lucy (19 March 2025). "Samantha Harvey and Téa Obreht shortlisted for inaugural Climate fiction prize". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  25. ↑ "Arthur C. Clarke Award 2025". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus. Retrieved 28 March 2026.
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