Rachel Seiffert's first novel, The Dark Room, was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize and won both a Betty Trask Award and the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her other books include a short story collection, Field Study, and a novel, Afterwards. She was named one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists in 2003. She is the recipient of the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a David T. K. Wong Award from International PEN for her short stories. After living in Scotland and Germany, Seiffert now lives with her family in London.