Sam McManus, with his manuscript-in-progress, A Bear Wakes in Winter, is a 2025 New Voices writer. 

About A Bear Wakes in Winter: Lømma, Norway, 1927

After serving in the Great War as a medical officer, Jon 'Silence' Hellvik moved to the mountain village of Lømma. There he hoped to forget his war experiences and pursue his work as an artist. He married Jenni, a local woman, and had one child, Per, who, four years prior to the events of the novel, was lost in an avalanche. 

One winter's morning, Silence finds his stallion mauled to death by a bear. He and Hans Terjeplass, the largest landowner in the valley, journey into the mountains by ski to kill the bear. 

During the confusion of the hunt, an accident occurs that sets off a chain of events that will force Silence from the village and the life he has known. 

About Sam: Sam McManus is a doctor and writer who lives in Oslo, Norway. He recently completed a Masters in Creative Writing at Oxford University where he won the J.T Pasby Prize for outstanding student. He has previously been nominated for the Hennessy\Irish Times Prize for Literature. His work has been published in the Irish Times, The Village Magazine and The Irish Medical Times.

Any free time he has, he spends exploring the Norwegian landscape by foot and ski. The country's valleys, fjords, plains and mountains are the inspiration for his work-in-progress, A Bear Wakes in Winter.