Caleb Azumah Nelson is a British-Ghanaian writer and photographer living in South East London. He was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2020 for his story "Pray" and was selected by The Observer as one of the 10 Best Debut Novelists of 2021.
His first novel, Open Water, was published by Viking (UK) and by Grove Atlantic (US) in 2021. It has since been longlisted for the Desmond Elliot prize and the Gordon Burn prize, shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year 2021, and won the Costa First Novel Award 2021. In February 2022 it was selected as Waterstones Paperback of the Month and was longlisted for the 2022 Dylan Thomas Prize.
As a screenwriter and director, Caleb is currently developing an original series with Element, a feature with Heyday and Film4, and recently wrote and directed a short film with BBC Film.
While at MacDowell, he worked on a book of photography and essays formed from a research trip to Ghana to accompany his second novel, Small Worlds.
Portrait by Stuart Ruel
