Cal Flyn. Scotland, UK. Award-winning writer from the Scottish Highlands. She writes literary nonfiction and investigative journalism. She was recently named the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 2021. Her debut book, Thicker Than Water, which explores issues of colonialism and intergenerational guilt, was a Times Book of the Year. Her second book, Islands of Abandonment (2021), explores places where nature is reclaiming land formerly occupied by human activity, such as Canvey Wick in Essex and Chernobyl. It was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize and the Baillie Gifford Nonfiction Award. Flyn's journalistic work has appeared in publications including Granta, The Sunday Times Magazine, Telegraph Magazine, and The Economist, among others. She is a columnist for Prospect, deputy editor of the book recommendation website Five Books, and a regular contributor to The Guardian. She has been a writer-in-residence at the Gladstone Library and the Jan Michalski Foundation in Switzerland. She was appointed a MacDowell Fellow in 2019, during which time she wrote Islands of Abandonment.