Joanna Campbell studied German at university and as a student spent time living in West Germany. She has worked as a teacher of both German and English, and now writes full-time. Her debut novel Tying Down the Lion was published in 2015, and her short story collection When Planets Slip Their Tracks (2016) was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize. She is a prolific short fiction writer, with pieces published in many anthologies and literary magazines, and has won several awards, including the London Short Story Prize. Her novella Sybilla won the 2021 National Flash Fiction Day Novella-in-Flash Award. She lives in Gloucestershire, and when not writing she enjoys painting and playing the piano.