Rachel Dawson

Rachel Dawson is a Welsh novelist, born in Swansea and based in Cardiff. She studied English literature at Cardiff University, graduating in 2010, and has worked at a women’s refuge; she was a founding member of the Songbirds Choir for LGBTQ+ singers. A Literature Wales bursary in 2020 supported her first novel, Neon Roses (2023), a queer coming-of-age story set in south Wales during the 1984–85 miners’ strike. It was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year and the Polari Prize and received a Betty Trask Award in 2024. She became a director of Seren Books in 2024.

Timeline of Rachel Dawson’s life

Works

Prizes