Joe Dunthorne was born in 1982 and brought up in Swansea, south Wales. His poetry has been featured on Channel 4 and BBC Radio 3 and he has published a collection in the Faber New Poets series. He has also performed at a range of festivals including Hay-on-Wye, Latitude and the Edinburgh Book Festival.

Now living in London, his first novel, Submarine, was published in 2008 and has already been translated into fifteen languages and made into an acclaimed film directed by Richard Ayoade. The novel was also long-listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize. His novel Wild Abandon, selected for the Exchange's Autumn 2011 Bookcase won the Encore Award for best second novel of the year and was launched in the US. It was also shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year 2012.

 Children of Radium is his first work of non-fiction. He lives in London.