Frank Wynne
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- For the American novelist and screenwriter, see Brian Garfield.
Frank Wynne (born 1962) is an Irish literary translator and writer.
Frank Wynne studied at Sligo Grammar School and Trinity College Dublin but moved to France in 1984. Between 1987 and 1994 Frank Wynne became involved in British comics publishing during its brief flirtation with bandes dessinées. He was deputy editor Revolver and later Crisis before becoming managing editor of Deadline magazine, home of Tank Girl. After the demise of Deadline, in part through the badly received movie version Tank Girl starring Lori Petty, Frank decamped and worked for several years as editorial director of AOL UK during the heady expansion of the internet bubble.
He has worked as a literary translator for many years translating of the novels of Michel Houellebecq (he jointly won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award with Houellebecq for Atomised, his translation of Les particules élémentaires - a book the New York Times called a "deeply repugnant read.") He has subsequently translated Houellebecq's novels Platform and Lanzarote, together with novels by Pierre Mérot, Frederic Beigbeder and the late Ivoirian novelist Ahmadou Kourouma. His translation of Frederic Beigbeder's Windows on the World, a novel set in the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York during the September 11, 2001 attacks, won the 2005 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.
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[edit] Non Fiction
His first non-fiction book, I Was Vermeer, a biography of Han van Meegeren was published by Bloomsbury in August 2006. Between 1938 and 1944 van Meegeren forged seven paintings, passing them off as lost masterpieces by Vermeer. The works were authenticated by some of the finest art critics in Europe, among them Abraham Bredius, who acclaimed Van Meegeren's forgery The Supper at Emmaus as "one of - I would go so far as to to say *the* masterpiece by Johannes Vermeer of Delft". Wynne's biography, I was Vermeer has been serialised as the BBC Radio 4 "Book of the Week" (read by Anton Lesser) for August 7-12 2006.
Frank Wynne lives in London.
[edit] Selected translations
- Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
- Platform by Michel Houellebecq (adapted by Carnal Acts for the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA))
- Lanzarote by Michel Houellebecq
- Windows of the World (novel) by Frédéric Beigbeder
- Mammals by Pierre Mérot
- Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote by Ahmadou Kourouma
- Allah is Not Obliged by Ahmadou Kourouma
- In the Absence of Men by Philippe Besson
- His Brother by Philippe Besson
- The Parrot's Theorem by Dennis Guedj
- The Little Book of Philosophy by André Comte-Sponville
- Somewhere in a Desert by Dominique Sigaud (a New York Times notable book)
[edit] Awards
- 2002: Winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for Atomised' by Michel Houellebecq
- 2005: Winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for Windows on the World by Frédéric Beigbedger
[edit] Nominations
- 1998: shortlisted for the George Weidenfeld Translation Prize for Somewhere in a Desert.
- 2002: shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for Atomised by Michel Houellebecq.
- 2003: shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for Platform by Michel Houellebecq.
