Catherine Merriman

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Catherine A Merriman is a British novelist and short story writer.

Merriman has published five novels and three short story collections. Her first novel, Leaving the Light On, won the Ruth Hadden Memorial Award in 1992. Her collection of stories, Silly Mothers, was shortlisted for 1992 Wales Book of the Year, and she has twice won a Rhys Davies short story award, in 1991 and 1998.

She also edited Laughing, Not Laughing: Women Writing on 'My Experience of Sex', an anthology of Welsh women writing frankly about their sexual experiences, which won the publications category of the 2004 Erotic Awards.

Her writing often addresses women's experiences. Broken Glass focuses on breast cancer. State of Desire addresses reawakening sexuality after bereavement. Merriman states that two of her novels (Leaving The Light On and Fatal Observations), about domestic power and domestic violence, have their foundations in her eleven years' experience as a volunteer for the charity Women's Aid.^[1]

Merriman teaches writing at the University of Glamorgan and is a fellow of the Welsh Academi. She is an editor of the New Welsh Review and has judged numerous short story competitions.

Though not Welsh by birth, she has lived in South-East Wales since 1973, and is often considered a Welsh writer.