Josh Silver (born 15 September 1989https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/100975-josh-silver-s-fruit-fly-is-a-smart-send-up-of-the-publishing-machine.html) is a British author and former actor and mental health nurse. He is best known for his debut adult novel, Fruit Fly (2026), a literary satire and psychological thriller exploring authorship, appropriation, addiction and identity. The novel was named a must-read book of 2026 by the BBC and became a New York Times, Sunday Times and USA Today bestseller.Its television rights were acquired by A24, with Silver attached as an executive producer.
Silver began his writing career in young adult fiction. HappyHead (2023), was shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and nominated for the Carnegie Medal for Writing. His third young adult novel, Traumaland (2025), won the 2026 YA Book Prize and was published in the United States under the title Erase Me.
Biography Silver grew up on a farm in the Lake District and moved to Manchester when he was a teenager. He attended RADA at the age of 18. After appearing on Broadway (the Royal Shakespeare Company's adaptation of the Hilary Mantel books Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies), and in the West End (notably alongside Nicole Kidman in Photograph 51), he later retrained as a mental health nurse and began writing at the same time. He is an identical twin.
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Awards and accolades
Title Year Award Result TraumaLand / Erase Me 2026 YA Book Prize Winner 2025 A Waterstones YA Book of the Year Named 2026 Carnegie Medal for Writing Nominated 2025 The Observer Best YA books of 2025 Named HappyHead 2024 YA Book Prize Shortlisted 2024 Carnegie Medal for Writing Nominated 2023 Amazon YA Book of the Year Named 2025 Massachusetts Teen Choice Award Shortlisted 2023 Irish Independent on Sunday Book of the Year Named
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