Nicholas Royle is the author of more than 100 short stories, two novellas and six novels. His short story collection, Mortality (Serpent’s Tail), was shortlisted for the inaugural Edge Hill Prize. He has edited fifteen anthologies of short stories, including A Book of Two Halves (Gollancz), The Time Out Book of Paris Short Stories (Penguin), ’68: New Stories by Children of the Revolution (Salt) and Murmurations: An Anthology of Uncanny Stories About Birds (Two Ravens Press). A senior lecturer in creative writing at the Manchester Writing School at MMU, he reviews fiction for the Independent and the Warwick Review. A new novel, First Novel (Jonathan Cape), is due to appear in 2013 and a collection of short stories, London Labyrinth (No Exit Press), is forthcoming. He lives in Manchester. He also runs Nightjar Press, publishing original short stories as signed, limited-edition chapbooks.