The Story Behind the Stories
Eleanor Blackwood grew up in a rambling Victorian house in Edinburgh, surrounded by her grandmother’s collection of first-edition novels and her father’s hand-drawn maps of imaginary places. She wrote her first “novel” at age nine — a thirty-page mystery about a cat detective — and never stopped.
After studying English Literature at the University of St Andrews, Eleanor spent two years traveling through South America, filling notebooks with observations that would later become the foundation for her debut novel, The Cartographer’s Daughter. The book was published in 2011 to critical acclaim and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Awards & Recognition
Her third novel, The Glass Meridian, became an international phenomenon, spending forty-seven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and winning the Costa Novel Award. It has since been adapted into a critically acclaimed BBC miniseries.
Eleanor’s work has been recognized with the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and a National Book Award nomination for Salt and Bone. She was named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists in 2023.
Teaching & Community
Eleanor is a passionate advocate for literacy and creative education. She serves on the board of the National Literary Trust and runs an annual writing retreat in the Scottish Highlands for emerging writers. She has taught master classes at Columbia University, the University of Edinburgh, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her border collie Oliver and an ever-growing collection of fountain pens.