Brannavan Gnanalingam is a novelist and lawyer based in Wellington. His last three novels have all been longlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Foundation Prize for Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, including the shortlisted Sprigs (2020) and Sodden Downstream (2017). Sprigs also won the 2021 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. He is also a regular Sunday Star-Times columnist and former reviewer, and won a Qantas Media Award as part of the Lumière Reader’s film coverage.