---
title: "RJ Barker "
description: "Guest of Honour 2026"
date: "2026-02-17"
---

# RJ Barker

![](https://fantasyfestival.eu/i/MOLIRIMEDIA/129fcd3c-9bd0-4e6e-67b8-08de6df2617e?width=800)

## Fantasyfestival 2026 presents: RJ Barker as this year’s Guest of Honour!

RJ Barker was born and raised in England. He lives in Leeds with his wife and son in a house filled with books, strange art, eerie music, and stuffed animals. He fell in love with the world of books as a child, reading everything he could get his hands on and always carrying a book in his hand or pocket. He began his career playing in several rock bands but changed direction when he decided he wasn’t a good enough musician. Instead, he turned to the world of fiction and began writing novels.

RJ Barker made his debut in 2017 with Age of Assassins, the first instalment in the fantasy trilogy The Wounded Kingdom. The second and third books followed the year after. The series follows an assassin’s apprentice named Girton Club-Foot, who is drawn into a plot threatening the heir to the throne. The trilogy was nominated for numerous literary awards, including the David Gemmell Award, the Kitschie Golden Tentacle, the Compton Crook Award, and the BFS Best Debut and Best Novel awards.

The following year, RJ released The Bone Ships, the first book in a new trilogy, The Tide Child, which firmly established his name as a fantasy author and became an instant reader favourite. The novel and its sequels were met with widespread critical acclaim, and in 2020 the first book won the British Fantasy Society (BFS) Robert Holdstock Award for Best Novel. Booklist praised the series with the words: “A unique and memorable world – harsh and brutal and full of fully realized, powerful female characters. Barker has managed to craft a story inspired by Moby Dick, Game of Thrones, and pirate lore, and readers will be drawn in and fascinated.”

RJ Barker is an incredibly prolific writer who enjoys giving classic fantasy tropes an unexpected twist. In 2023, the first book in his third fantasy trilogy, Gods of the Wyrdwood, was published, concluding in 2025. Later this year, Mortedant’s Peril, the first book in yet another new trilogy, The Trials of Irody Hasp, will be released.

We look forward to diving into RJ’s worlds and epic storytelling.