Andrew J King

Andrew J King grew up in an artisan culture that valued thinking and making equally. Changing mid-career from design to teaching led, via an MA in Visual Culture at Bath Spa University, to helping art and design students reclaim writing as a creative practice related to physical making. A lifelong interest in Japanese culture culminated in a six-week tour of northern Honshu in the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami. Privileged to assist and observe at spectacular Shinto horseback archery rituals, Andrew noted how they helped restore continuity and community after the terrors of earthquake, flood and nuclear emergency. His debut novel The Arrow Garden grew partly out of these experiences. Long-listed in three competitions while in development, it won the Bath Novel Award in 2020. A resident of Bath, Andrew works full-time on fiction and non-fiction projects with cross-cultural themes, and is a practising archer.