Carys Anne Bray (née Irwin; born December 1975) is a British writer.
Early life and education Bray was born in Southport to a strict Mormon family. She spent her teen years in Exeter; her father was a local stake president in Devon and Cornwall.
Bray graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English literature from Open University in 2008 and subsequently completed a Master of Arts (MA) at Edge Hill University in 2010 followed by a PhD.
Career Bray is a lapsed Mormon, and her debut novel A Song for Issy Bradley (2014) follows a Mormon family undergoing a crisis of faith.
Her second novel, The Museum of You, was published in 2016.
According to The Bookseller, she earned a "strong five figure" advance in 2019 for a novel about climate change, entitled When the Lights Go Out. The book was published in 2020.
Personal At age 20, Bray married and subsequently had five children before deciding to return to education in her 30s. Her younger brother was the late photographer Matt Irwin (1980–2016).
Bray uses a treadmill desk when writing.
Awards and honours 2010: Edge Hill Short Story Prize for MA Creative Writing 2011: Scott Prize 2015: Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2023: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL)
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