Gurnaik Johal


Gurnaik Singh Johal is a British writer of Indian origin. Originally from Northolt, London, he studied at the University of Manchester.
Johal's debut collection of short stories, We Move, was published in 2022. Among other honours, it won the Somerset Maugham Award. His sophomore novel, Saraswati, is due out in 2025.

''We Move'' (2022)

We Move was published April 2022, by Serpent's Tail, and contains 17 stories:
  1. Arrival
  2. The Red River
  3. Leave to Remain
  4. Chatpata: Kaam
  5. Strange Attractor
  6. Flight Path
  7. SYM
  8. The Turn
  9. Chatpata: Ahankar
  10. Afterimage
  11. The Piano
  12. Haven Green
  13. Be More Roy
  14. Chatpata: Moh
  15. Freehold
  16. The Twelfth of Never
  17. We Move
The collection was generally well received by critics, with both The Guardian and Hindustan Times named it one of the best books of 2022. It won the 2023 Somerset Maugham Award and the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award. Prior to the collection's publication, "Arrival" won the 2022 Galley Beggar Press Short Story Award, and "The Piano" had been shortlisted for the 2018 Guardian and Fourth Estate BAME Short Story Prize.
In 2025 Saraswati was shortlisted for Waterstones debut fiction prize.