Holly Dawson is a writer, editor and creative writing tutor. Her genre-defying memoir, All Of Us Atoms, was published in May 2025 by Canongate to widespread critical acclaim. The audiobook, read by Helena Bonham Carter, will be released in October 2025. She has written for The Observer, The Guardian, Panorama, and the BBC, where her feature about home received more than three million reads and led to a radio documentary. She has taken part in live broadcasts on Radio 4 and Radio Sussex, and been interviewed for podcasts including Field Ramble and Sam Baker’s The Shift.

Her plays, bringing to life figures such as Virginia Woolf and F Scott Fitzgerald entirely in their own words, have been performed by actors including Helena Bonham Carter, James Norton, Jonathan Pryce, Miranda Richardson, Joanna Scanlon, Lucy Boynton and Tobias Menzies.

She has spent 15 years organising, hosting and being part of literary events, from story slams to panel discussions. She has chaired speakers including Eimear McBride, Denise Gough and Kirsty Logan at Charleston Festival, Francesca Simon at the Royal Opera House and John Harris at End of the Road Festival, and has shared the stage with Charlie Porter, Lindsay Duncan, Juliet Nicolson and others. Her next event is at Southbank Centre on 1 November with Thea Lenarduzzi.

Since 2018, she has been Reader-in-Residence at Charleston, where she runs the popular Charleston Life Writing programme, Festival Book Club and other workshops and events. She is also part of the Creative Writing Programme faculty, and has guest taught for Jericho Writers, York University, and UMass Lovell. As an editor, she supports writers of all genres to shape their work to gain agents, publishers and audiences.

She is a researcher for Letters Live and has worked with commercial clients including IKEA, Timberland, the Bloomsbury Club, Berry Bros & Rudd, and most of London’s luxury hotels.

Having grown up in Cornwall, she now lives in rural Sussex with a cross-eyed husky and far too many hens.