Dr Nathan Filer

Personal statement

I've worked at Bath Spa University since 2014. I teach across the BA, MA and PhD Creative Writing programmes and am co-director of the Research Centre for Mental Health, Wellbeing and Creativity.

I have a special interest in mental health, having previously worked as a mental health nurse and researcher. My PhD thesis considered how we can tell stories that honour the unyielding complexity of mental illness and trauma while remaining alert to the demands of a general readership.

My novel, The Shock of the Fall (2013), tells the story of a young man navigating psychiatric services following the death of his brother. It was a Sunday Times bestseller and translated into thirty languages. It won the Costa Book of the Year, the Betty Trask Prize, the National Book Award for Popular Fiction and the Writers’ Guild Award for Best First Novel. My subsequent book of non-fiction, The Heartland: Finding and Losing Schizophrenia, also published as This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health (2019), was a Sunday Times Book of the Year and was longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, awarded for the finest work of literature, regardless of form, to be published in the English language. The charity Rethink Mental Illness named it as one of their best books of the decade.

I've written essays and articles for the Guardian, New York Times, HuffPost and Asylum Magazine. My BBC Radio 4 documentary The Mind in the Media (2017), which explored portrayals of mental illness in fiction and journalism, was shortlisted for a Mind Media Award. My podcast series Why Do I Feel? was a Financial Times Top 10 Podcast of 2021 and won a Silver Medal at the 2022 Radio Academy ARIAS awards for 'Best Independent Podcast'.

I'm a recipient of The Big Anxiety Prize, awarded in association with the University of New South Wales for 'a creative thinker advancing the discussion of mental health'. I also hold an Honorary Doctorate in Liberal Arts from Abertay University, conferred in recognition of my role in raising awareness of mental health issues through literature.

I am keen to hear from Creative Writing PhD candidates who share an interest in my research specialisms.

Academic qualifications

• BSc (Hons) Mental Health Nursing
• MA Creative Writing
• PhD Creative Writing

Professional memberships

• Fellow - Higher Education Academy

Teaching specialisms

• Creative Writing (fiction, narrative nonfiction, poetry)
• Mental Health Humanities
• Psychology and literature
• Critical psychiatry