Partial view of a young man's face with dark hair, beard, and earring, wearing a white shirt and a blue plaid shirt over it, standing against a plain light-colored background.

William Rayfet Hunter is an award-winning author, writer and curator based in London. Their work spans fiction, essays, journalism, screenwriting and poetry, with a particular interest in race, class, identity, desire, relationships, culture and belonging.

Their bestselling debut novel, Sunstruck, was published by Merky Books in 2025 after winning the #Merky Books New Writers’ Prize. It was shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, named an Observer Best New Novel of 2025, and was selected as one of Waterstones Paperbacks of the Year 2026.

Hunter’s writing has been widely published in The Guardian, The Observer, GQ, VICE, The Fence, The Evening Standard, Red Pepper, fourteen poems and 14 Magazine, among others. Their journalism and essays cover culture, relationships, sexuality, race, class, masculinity, medicine and contemporary life.

Alongside their writing, Hunter is the founder and curator of COMMONPLACE, an intimate literary supper club bringing writers and readers together around a shared theme, a shared table and a shared meal.

Their literary agent is Kat Aitken at Lexington Literary and Christian Ogunbanjo at United Agents represents them for TV and film.