Wesley Stace

Wesley Stace, who preforms under the name John Wesley Harding, is a novelist and a folk singer-songwriter born in Hastings, England in 1965.

In 2005, his novel Misfortune was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. Misfortune was also chosen by Amazon as one of the Ten Best Novels of 2005, and was one of The Washington Post‘s Books of the Year. The same year, Harding released Songs of Misfortune, an album of songs that were written for the book. Amazon listed the album as one of the Top Ten Folk Records for 2005.

Additionally, he has written chapbooks for some of his albums, and essays for various music publications, from Creem to Raygun. His essay, “Listerine: The Life and Opinions of Laurence Ste