Alan Hollinghurst
| Alan Hollinghurst | |
|---|---|
|
Alan Hollinghurst at the 2011 Texas Book Festival | |
| Born |
26 May 1954 Stroud, Gloucestershire, England, Great Britain |
| Occupation | Writer, translator |
| Period | 1975– |
| Genre | Novel, poem, short story |
| Notable works |
The Swimming Pool Library, The Folding Star The Spell, The Line of Beauty, The Stranger's Child |
| Notable awards |
Newdigate Prize 1974 Stonewall Book Award 1989 Somerset Maugham Award 1989 James Tait Black Memorial Prize 1994 Booker Prize 2004 |
Alan James Hollinghurst FRSL (born 26 May 1954) is an English novelist, poet, short story writer and translator. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 1989 Somerset Maugham Award, the 1994 James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the 2004 Booker Prize.
Biography
Of English descent, Hollinghurst was born in Stroud, Gloucestershire on 26 May 1954, the only child of James Hollinghurst, a bank manager, and his wife, Elizabeth. He attended Canford School in Dorset.[1]
Hollinghurst studied English at Magdalen College, Oxford, receiving the BA in 1975 and MLitt in 1979. His thesis was on the works of Ronald Firbank, E. M. Forster and L. P. Hartley, three gay writers.[2][3] While at Oxford he shared a house with future poet laureate Andrew Motion, and was awarded the Newdigate Prize for poetry in 1974, a year before Motion.
In the late 1970s he became a lecturer at Magdalen College, and then at Somerville College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 1981 he moved on to lecture at University College London, and in 1982 he joined The Times Literary Supplement, where he was the paper's deputy editor from 1985 to 1990.[4][5]
Hollinghurst is openly gay.[6][7][8] He lives in London.[9]
He won the 2004 Man Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty.[8] His next novel, The Stranger's Child, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2011.[10]
He lives alone, explaining: "I'm not at all easy to live with. I wish I could integrate writing into ordinary social life, but I don't seem to be able to. I could when I started [writing]. I suppose I had more energy then. Now I have to isolate myself for long periods."[11]
List of works
Poetry
- Isherwood is at Santa Monica (Sycamore Broadsheet 22: two poems, hand-printed on a single folded sheet), Oxford: Sycamore Press 1975
- Poetry Introduction 4 (ten poems: 'Over the Wall', 'Nightfall', 'Survey', 'Christmas Day at Home', 'The Drowned Field', 'Alonso', 'Isherwood is at Santa Monica', 'Ben Dancing at Wayland's Smithy', 'Convalescence in Lower Largo', 'The Well'), Faber, 1978
- Confidential Chats with Boys, Oxford: Sycamore Press 1982 (based on the book Confidential Chats with Boys by William Lee Howard, MD., 1911, Sydney, Australia)
- 'Mud' (London Review of Books, Vol.4 No.19, 21 October 1982)
Novels
- The Swimming Pool Library, 1988
- The Folding Star, 1994
- The Spell, 1998
- The Line of Beauty, 2004
- The Stranger's Child, 2011
Short stories
- A Thieving Boy (Firebird 2: Writing Today, Penguin, 1983)
- Sharps and Flats (Granta 43, 1993)
- Highlights (Granta 100, 2007) Was incorporated into The Folding Star
Translations
- Bajazet by Jean Racine, 1991
- Bérénice by Jean Racine, 2012
As editor
- New Writing 4 (with A. S. Byatt), 1995
- Three Novels by Ronald Firbank, 2000
- A. E. Housman: poems selected by Alan Hollinghurst, 2001
Awards and honours
In 1974, Hollinghurst was awarded the Newdigate Prize.
In 1989, Hollinghurst won the Somerset Maugham Award for The Swimming Pool Library.
In 1994, he won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Folding Star.
In 2004, he won the Man Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty.[8]
In 2011, his novel The Stranger's Child was longlisted for the Booker Prize.[10]
He received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from Publishing Triangle in 2011.
References
- ↑ Andrew Anthony, "Alan Hollinghurst: The slow-motion novelist delivers," The Guardian, 11 June 2011.
- ↑ "Article by Peter Rose". Theage.com.au. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
- ↑ "About.com". Contemporarylit.about.com. 13 November 2013. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
- ↑ "Hollinghurst's rise to Booker glory". BBC News. 19 October 2004. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
- ↑ Johnson, Allan (2014). Alan Hollinghurst and the Vitality of Influence. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 62. ISBN 1349472506.
- ↑ Hahn, Lorraine (11 May 2005). "Alan Hollinghurst TalkAsia Interview Transcript". TalkAsia. CNN. Retrieved 28 January 2009.
I only chafe at the 'gay writer' tag if it's thought to describe everything that's interesting about my books.
- ↑ Moss, Stephen (21 October 2004). "'I Don't Make Moral Judgments': Interview with Alan Hollinghurst, winner of the 2004 Booker prize.". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 12 February 2009. Retrieved 28 January 2009.
Much as Chris Smith, the chairman of the Booker judges, tries to gainsay the fact, Hollinghurst is a gay novelist. This is a gay novel.
- 1 2 3 "Alan Hollinghurst wins prestigious Booker Prize". The Advocate. 21 October 2004. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
Out British author Alan Hollinghurst has won the Booker Prize...
- ↑ Tillyard, Stella (November 2005). "Interview: Alan Hollinghurst". Prospect Magazine. Retrieved 28 January 2009.
- 1 2 "Man Booker Prize 2011 longlist announced". The Booker Prize Foundation. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
- ↑ Gekoski, Rick (7 July 2011). "Writing is bad for you". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
External links
- An Interview at the Oxonian Review
- Alan Hollinghurst at British Council: Literature includes a "Critical Perspective" section
- Alan Hollinghurst at The New York Review of Books
- Alan Hollinghust Profile in The Guardian
- 2011 radio interview at The Bat Segundo Show
- Peter Terzian (Winter 2011). "Alan Hollinghurst, The Art of Fiction No. 214". The Paris Review.