Joe was born in 1986 and grew up in Bradford, the son of two teachers. In 2004, he won the Foyle Young Poets award, and his poetry has been published in pamphlets and periodicals. He studied for a BA in English Literature at Stirling University and earned a Masters in Creative Writing from Glasgow University.

The Rules of Seeing was Joe’s first novel and was published in 2019. It was shortlisted for the Book’s Are My Bag reader awards and won the Romantic Novelist Association’s Debut Novel Award. Joe is now a full-time writer, but previously worked as an editor of books for kids and young adults. He has also been a subtitler for BBC News, a face painter at a safari park and a removal man for a dental convention. Before smartphones were invented, he manned a text service where people could ‘ask any question’, but he has since forgotten most of the answers.

Joe lives in London with his girlfriend, his two sons, and a generously proportioned tabby cat.

Joe is represented by Laura Macdougall at United Agents. More information can be found at unitedagents.co.uk/joe-heap