Hana Gammon is a South African writer based in Cape Town. She has been fascinated by storytelling and the uncanny from a young age, and writes to unsettle the lines between the familiar and the frightening. Her short story, ‘The Undertaker’s Apprentice’ won the Africa Region of the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, making her the youngest winner in the prize’s history at the age of twenty. Hana is currently studying an Honours degree in English at the University of Stellenbosch. When she’s not writing, she enjoys creating textile art, practicing historical longsword fencing, collecting and preserving animal remains, and spending time with her family. The Specimens is her debut novel.