John Murray Press has announced that it will publish Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking, the stunning debut by Bridport Prize shortlistee Han Smith, in 2024.

Launching Encounters, its fiction preview magazine, the publisher writes: “This is an experimental and daring debut about a young woman who comes of age in a town that is reckoning with its past. Perfect for readers of Milkman and A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing!”

You can read an extract from Portraits and a short introductory essay from Han in Encounters here.

Han writes: “I wrote Portraits largely as a process of thinking about the manipulation and exploitation of history and memory, and the extremely dark places this can lead to. I was interested in and terrified by the way that in so many places, certain narratives about a country’s past are positioned and abused for political gain, while other inconvenient ones are ignored, stifled, or forcibly altered; I was also looking at how activist groups challenging states and authorities on distorted narratives – and other issues – were being harassed and persecuted.”

Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking will be released on 20th June 2024. You can pre-order your copy here now.

Follow Han on Twitter @Han_Smiff.