The Scottish poet and writer's first foray into full-length fiction, The Panopticon (William Heinemann, 3 May), plunges into the life of Anais Hendricks, a teenage girl in care. Praised by Samantha Morton and Andrew Motion, the novel has also been singled out by Waterstones as a debut to watch.

"I was really interested in creating a female character that was very strong and smart but also quite conflicted," said Fagan, 34. "She is aware of the context of her life. Kids in care at the age of 15 and 16 are very vulnerable – things could go one way or another for them."

The story is told in the first person in a Scottish vernacular that conveys the character's bolshie self-possession shines through, even as she struggles to imagine life outside the care system. Fagan herself was looked after by the state for 16 years and was determined that her novel did not pander to cliche. "It was a book I really didn't want to write, because care is such a hot topic and I'm a very literary writer," she says. But the subject fed into ideas sparked by studying literary theory, and in the summer of 2010 she wrote every day to finish her first draft.At the time she was a creative writing student at Greenwich University, where she went on to achieve the highest possible marks and win a scholarship to Royal Holloway college in London. Fagan has published several volumes of poetry and been shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize.