Author Q&A: Susan Barker

Author/ Bookish Everybody
28 February 2026

Susan Barker initially went to university to study Chemistry but ended up writing fiction while living in a small town outside Kyoto. Throughout the month of March, she is international writer in residence at Hong Kong Baptist University, allowing her to spend more time in Hong Kong again (her next book may be partly set here!). Barker lived in Shenzhen from 2012-14, and used to visit Hong Kong all the time and says it’s still one of her favourite places in the world.

How did you become a writer?

I started writing fiction back in 2001, as a recent UK university graduate teaching English in a small town outside Kyoto, Japan. I was quite isolated there, had no internet or English language TV. Reading novels became my main recreational activity, which inspired me to attempt writing fiction of my own. I worked in elementary and junior high schools during the day, then in the evenings I’d go to a coffee shop near my apartment with a notebook or laptop and spend a couple of hours trying to write. I mostly wrote stories set in Japan, which became the basis of my first novel, Sayonara Bar – set in an Osaka hostess bar, and published in 2005.

What would you be doing otherwise?

I initially went to university to study for a BSc in Chemistry, with the ambition of becoming a chemistry teacher, so there’s possibly a parallel university where I’m teaching GCSE students the Periodic Table. I ended up dropping out and later studying philosophy.

Of the characters you have created, which is your favourite and why?

In my latest novel, Old Soul, I write from the POV of a 200 year old woman, who moves around the world, doing horrifying things to other people she encounters in order to sustain her life. She was very fun to write.

How did you come to be in this part of the world and to start writing?

I am here throughout March as a international writer in residence at Hong Kong Baptist University. I am so immensely grateful and excited to have this opportunity to spend time in Hong Kong, and research locations for my next book (which may be partly set here). I lived in Shenzhen from 2012-14, and used to visit Hong Kong all the time then. It’s one of my favourite places in the world.

Tell us about your writing method. Is there a secret?

I avoid the internet. Working on my new novel I’ve been getting up early, making coffee and sitting down to write without going online at all. I find I’m much more focused if I start writing first thing. Spending even 20 minutes despairing at the state of the world on my iPad, really rots my brain and gets in the way of my producing even halfway-decent work.

Which author, alive or dead, would you most like to meet?

I am just finishing Red Comet, Heather Clarke’s incredible 1000-page long biography of Sylvia Plath. It’s a masterwork and now I’d love to meet Plath and just be in the vicinity of her genius.

Tell us about your favourite bookshop in the world.

I used to love The Bookworm in Beijing, which closed for good in 2019. It was such a wonderful, inspiring bookstore and meeting place, and stocked a wealth of books on China. I recently bumped into Alex Pearson, The Bookworm’s former owner, at the Edinburgh Book Festival (which, coincidentally, is directed by Jenny Niven who used to be in charge of The Bookworm’s events) and I felt such a burst of nostalgia. It really was an institution.

What advice would you give your younger, writer self?

Ha, I don’t know if I’d want to interfere in my past. Yes, there may be errors in the way I’ve lived and the way I’ve written fiction. But I’ve generally been happy with the whole bumpy journey and books I’ve published, mistakes and all. I wouldn’t want to change where I’ve ended up.

Old Soul by Susan Barker is for sale at Bookazine.

About the Author

Bookish Everybody

Books and reading are too often on the periphery. Enter: Bookish Everybody, a one-stop community of book enthusiasts to read or write reviews, join read-alongs, buy/sell/give books and join our competitions to win books: www.bookisheverybody.com.