David Mitchell's first novel, Ghostwritten, was awarded the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. His second novel, Number9dream, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize as well as the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

In 2003, David Mitchell was selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and his third novel, Cloud Atlas, was shortlisted for six awards including the Man Booker Prize. It also won the British Book Awards Best Literary Fiction, the South Bank Show Literature Prize and the Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year. Black Swan Green was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Born in 1969, he grew up in Worcestershire, and now lives in Japan with his wife and two children.