Ben Tufnell in conversation with fellow writer, Tracee Findlater about his two books, the North Shore, a ‘brilliant, singular, unsettling’ novel set in Norfolk and published by Fleet (Little Brown) in 2023, and new novel, Paradise, ‘a Kafka-esque eco-thriller’, just out this year, published by Influx Press.
Bookings
Part of Norfolk & Norwich Festival, and organised in collaboration with the King’s Lynn Book Festival
Tickets are £15, to include refreshments; Bookable from Norfolk & Norwich Festival
When and where
Thursday May 14, 6-8 pm
NB Please note the event is to be held at Studio Baum, 33 Bridge St, King’s Lynn, PE30 5AB
Author: Ben Tufnell
Ben Tufnell is a writer and curator based in London. He grew up on a smallholding in rural North Norfolk before studying English & History of Art at the University of Leicester and completing a Masters in Museology at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. He was a curator at Tate in London from 1996 to 2006, Director of Exhibitions at Haunch of Venison (London, Berlin, Zurich and New York) from 2006 to 2013, and then Director of Parafin, an independent contemporary art gallery in London from 2014 to 2024. He has published widely on modern and contemporary art, in particular on artforms that engage with ideas of landscape and nature. His critical books include Land Art (Tate Publishing, 2006), On The Very Edge Of The Ocean (Tate St Ives Research Series, 2006), and In Land: Writings Around Land Art and Its Legacies (Zero Books, 2019). Selected essays, interviews and curatorial projects are archived at www.bentufnell.com
Since beginning to publish fiction in 2021, his short stories have appeared in Best British Short Stories 2024, Conjunctions, Interzone, The Los Angeles Review and Structo, amongst others. He has been long- or short-listed for prizes including the BBC National Short Story Award, the Sean O’Faolain Short Story Prize, and the Society of Authors’ ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award for short fiction.
His debut novel, THE NORTH SHORE, was published by Fleet (Little, Brown) in 2023 and was reviewed in The Guardian, Times Literary Supplement and The New European. The novelist and critic Nina Allan wrote that ‘The North Shore is that rare beast, a work of folk horror that holds its own with the classics whilst exhibiting genuine points of difference.’ Novelist and critic Elvia Wilk called it ‘a beautiful, moving, unexpected novel. Its smoothness and readability bely its depth and complexity, with narratives so seamlessly interwoven that I can’t find the edges.’
His second novel, PARADISE,was published by Influx Press in February 2026.
Website: www.bentufnell.com
Bluesky: @bentufnell.bsky.social
Instagram: @ben_tufnell
Tracee Findlater
Tracee Findlater grew up on RAF bases across East Anglia, a background that still shapes her poetry and fiction, drawing on memory, myth, and abandoned places. She studied Classical Studies at the University of Liverpool and now lives in King’s Lynn, Norfolk.
Her first poetry pamphlet, Broken Passages, a poetic tour of derelict barracks on an abandoned air force base, was published in 2023. Stone Trees, a poetry and image collaboration with artist Fliss Cary, inspired by the coastline near their homes, was published in 2024 by Atomic Bohemian. Annick Yerem, Editor-in-Chief of Sidhe Press, called it a “tender, meditative book… a thing of beauty to come back to again and again.”
Traces Findlater’s first novel, The Unravelling of Flora Cotton, a speculative romance, was published in 2025 by Lyria Books. It tells the story of a young woman who begins a strange love affair while haunting a library, described as “a bittersweet, romantic tale of love, loss and finding the courage to step into the unknown.”
Her latest poetry collection, Gorgoneion (2026), explores the mythology of the Gorgons and was launched at the Fenland Festival for International Women’s Day.
Contact via Lyria Books, where there are also links to purchase work directly.
