| Honorific Suffix: | FRSL |
| Birth Name: | Carys Anne Irwin |
| Birth Date: | December 1975[1] |
| Birth Place: | Southport, England |
| Occupation: | Novelist |
| Awards: | Authors' Club Best First Novel Award; Scott Prize; Edge Hill Prize |
| Relatives: | Matt Irwin (brother) |
Carys Anne Bray (née Irwin; born December 1975) is a British writer.
Bray was born in Southport to a strict Mormon family. She spent her teen years in Exeter; her father was a local stake president in Devon and Cornwall.[2]
Bray graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English literature from Open University in 2008 and subsequently completed a Master of Arts (MA) at Edge Hill University in 2010 followed by a PhD.[3]
A lapsed Mormon, her debut novel A Song for Issy Bradley (2014) follows a Mormon family undergoing a crisis of faith.
Her second novel, The Museum of You, was published in 2016.
According to The Bookseller, she earned a "strong five figure" advance in 2019 for a novel about climate change, entitled When the Lights Go Out. The book was published in 2020.[4]
At age 20, Bray married and subsequently had five children before deciding to return to education in her 30s. Her younger brother was the late photographer Matt Irwin (1980–2016).[5]
Bray uses a treadmill desk when writing.