emma gannon
Emma Gannon is a Sunday Times bestselling and award-winning author of non-fiction (The Success Myth) and novels (OLIVE) published by HarperCollins & Penguin..
A former columnist for The Sunday Times, Emma has written for Vanity Fair, ELLE, Vogue, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Stylist and Harper’s Bazaar.
Her newsletter The Hyphen is the #5th most popular literature Substack globally. It is one of the first newsletters in the UK to have thousands of paid subscribers. Alongside writing, she hosts creativity retreats in the UK and globally.
Longer bio…
Emma Gannon is a bestselling and award-winning writer. From 2012-2019, Emma wrote columns for The Sunday Times, The Telegraph and Courier magazine on the topics of work, wellbeing and creativity. Now, she writes the popular newsletter The Hyphen instead and was one of the first in the UK to create a six-figure business on Substack. The newsletter reaches 40k+ readers weekly and currently ranked #5 in Top Literature Substacks globally — it is a celebration of all things books, literature, philosophy, wellbeing and creativity. Emma is a true authority on creativity, self-employment, wellbeing, digital culture and how to approach our work and life in a more rewarding way. Alongside writing, she hosts creativity retreats in the UK and all over the world.
Emma has published six bestselling books to date, including the Sunday Times bestseller The Multi-Hyphen Method (a manifesto for multi-hyphenates crafting work on their own terms); SABOTAGE (tips on how to silence your inner critic) and (DIS)CONNECTED (how to stay human in an online world) and THE SUCCESS MYTH (letting go of having it all.)
In 2018, she was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 List in Media & The Telegraph’s 35 Under 35. She has been called “one of the most influential thinkers on how we can work smarter” by Penguin Books and a “terrific interviewer” by the Financial Times. She is a trained coach and popular teacher on the online learning platform Skillshare, where her classes on creativity have attracted over 80k+ students.
In July 2020, her debut novel OLIVE was published and was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award. It was published by Harper Collins in the UK and Andrews McMeel in the US. The audiobook is narrated by Fleabag’s BAFTA-winning actor Sian Clifford, hit no.1 in the Apple audiobook charts and was nominated for multiple awards. OLIVE was described as “profound, accessible, and highly engaging” by Marian Keyes.
Emma was one of the first in the UK to recognise the power of podcasting. Her WEBBY-nominated top 10 business-charting podcast Ctrl, Alt, Delete is a non-traditional careers podcast founded in 2016 and has had over 13 million downloads to date, with guests including Elizabeth Gilbert, Ava DuVernay and Priyanka Chopra-Jonas. She has recorded many live episodes and even recorded a podcast from inside Buckingham Palace. The podcast published the last ever episode in January 2023 after six years.
Emma started her career in digital marketing, working with many global brands to shape their online brand strategies including Unilever, P&G and Heinz. She was also the social media editor at Condé Nast (Glamour UK) and The Debrief magazine. In 2016, she got her first book deal and was selected by Microsoft to appear in their TV campaign showcasing her multi-hyphenate working life.
She is an experienced speaker/panelist and has spoken at Arvon, TEDx, SoundsTrue, The Oxford Union, Founders Forum, Instagram HQ, Amazon UK and Google — plus many literary festivals over the years: Sharjah Book Festival, Hay Festival, Henley Literary Festival, Bath Festival, Wimbledon BookFest, Jersey Festival of Words, Guernsey Literary Fest, Alnwick Story Fest, Edinburgh Wellbeing Festival and Cheltenham Literature Festival (including being a guest curator). She has also appeared regularly on BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 4 (Woman's Hour), BBC Radio 2 (Simon Mayo), BBC Radio 5 Live (Naga Munchetty), BBC Radio 1 (Life Hacks) and Virgin Radio (Chris Evans Breakfast Show.) She is also an ambassador for The Princes Trust & The World Literacy Foundation.
Book agent: Curtis Brown
Commercial agent: Diving Bell
“One of the most prominent Substack writers in the UK” — The Times
“The most popular UK novelist on Substack” — The Bookseller
“A bright light and a shining star, and in many ways the voice of a generation.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love/Big Magic
“Read her, listen to her, explore her world and the world at large through her eyes. Hers is a journey well worth taking.”
— Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way
“I love Emma Gannon's wise and refreshing perspective on work and building a meaningful life.”
— Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks
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