Nydia Hetherington
Nydia moved to London in her early twenties to embark on an acting career, then to Paris, where she continued her theatre training before creating a theatre company and becoming a clown. Returning to London almost a decade later, she worked in a shoe shop while studying for a Creative Writing degree. During this time, after months of debilitating pain, Nydia was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Her debut novel, A Girl Made of Air, a book steeped in Manx folk lore, circus magic, and the terrors of humanity, came out in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic. The book went on to be nominated for The Guardian's Not The Booker Prize. Her second novel, Sycorax was published in February 2025, and has been shortlisted for The Wibur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. It is the story of Shakespeare’s silenced witch from The Tempest and a feminist exploration of Caliban’s much maligned mother, seen through the prism of chronic illness.