Linda Grant

Linda Grant
Born (1951-02-15) 15 February 1951
Liverpool, England
Occupation Novelist
Education MA English
Alma mater Simon Fraser, McMaster and York
Notable works The Clothes on Their Backs
Website
lindagrant.co.uk

Linda Grant FRSL (born 15 February 1951) is an English novelist and journalist.

Early life

Linda Grant was born in Liverpool. She was the oldest child of Benny Ginsberg, a businessman who made and sold hairdressing products, and Rose Haft; both parents had immigrant backgrounds – Benny's family was Polish-Jewish, Rose's Russian - and they adopted the surname Grant in the early 1950s.[1]

She was educated at The Belvedere School, read English at the University of York (1972 to 1975), then completed an M.A. in English at McMaster University in Canada. She did post-graduate studies at Simon Fraser University.[2]

Career

In 1985, Grant returned to England and became a journalist, working for The Guardian, and eventually wrote her own column for eighteen months. She published her first book, a non-fiction work, Sexing the Millennium: A Political History of the Sexual Revolution, in 1993. She wrote a personal memoir of her mother's fight with vascular dementia called Remind Me Who I Am, Again.

Her fiction draws heavily on her Jewish background, family history, and the history of Liverpool. She has developed a special interest in the state of Israel.

Bibliography

Non fiction

Fiction

Awards

Grant's début novel, The Cast Iron Shore, won the David Higham Prize for Fiction in 1996; awarded to the best first novel of the year.[4] Three years later her second, non-fiction, work, Remind Me Who I Am Again, won both the Mind and Age Concern Book of the Year awards.[5][6]

Her second fictional novel, When I Lived in Modern Times won the 2000 Orange Prize for Fiction and was short-listed for the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize the same year.[7][8] In 2002 her third novel Still Here was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.[9]

In 2006, Grant won the First Prize Lettre Ulysses Award for the "Art of Reportage", the last to be awarded, for her non-fiction work about the Israeli people entitled The People on the Street: A Writer's View of Israel.[10][11] The Clothes on Their Backs was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2008 and won The South Bank Show award in the Literature category.[12][13][14] It was also long-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction in the same year.[15]

In 2014, Grant was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL).[16]

References

  1. Rustin, Susanna (17 January 2011). "Linda Grant: a life in writing". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  2. "Linda Grant". Themanbookerprize.com. Booker Prize Foundation. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  3. Beckerman, Hannah (6 November 2016). "The Dark Circle by Linda Grant review – insurrection in the sanatorium". The Observer. London. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  4. Parker, Emma (24 October 2008). "University of Leicester – Interview with Booker-shortlisted novelist Linda Grant". .le.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  5. "Book of the year". Mind. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  6. "Linda Grant: Biography: Awards". literature.britishcouncil.org. British Council. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  7. Kennedy, Maev (8 June 2000). "Orange prize winner rejects claims of plagiarism | UK news". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  8. "Shortlist announced for Jewish Quarterly Wingate Literary Prizes". Jewish Quarterly. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  9. "Prize archive: 2002". Themanbookerprize.com. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  10. "Cover Stories: Frankfurt Book Fair; Norman Kember; Lettre Ulysses Award – Features – Books". The Independent. 6 October 2006. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  11. C. Max Magee (14 July 2007). "The Lettre Ulysses Goes on Hiatus". The Millions. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  12. "Entertainment | Rushdie tipped for 2008 Booker". BBC News. 29 July 2008. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  13. Pauli, Michelle; Flood, Alison (9 September 2008). "Rushdie 'not good enough' for Booker shortlist | guardian.co.uk". Guardian. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  14. "Linda Grant wins South Bank Show award: Man Booker Prize news". Themanbookerprize.com. 21 January 2009. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  15. Wendy (3 June 2009). "The Orange Prize Project: The Orange Prize for Fiction – Long Lists (1996 – Present)". Orangeprizeproject.blogspot.co.uk. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  16. "Current RSL Fellows". rsliterature.org. Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved 8 November 2016.

External links

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