Jim Crace

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Jim Crace (born March 1, 1946 in Hertfordshire, England) is a contemporary English writer. The winner of numerous awards, Crace also has a large popular following. He currently lives in the Moseley area of Birmingham with his wife. They have two children.

1 Biography
2 Bibliography
3 Awards
4 Criticism
5 External links

[edit] Biography

After securing a BA (Hons) in English Literature from the London University in 1968, Crace traveled overseas with the UK organization Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), working in Sudan. Two years later he returned to the UK, and worked with the BBC, writing educational programmes. From 1976 to 1987 he worked as a freelance journalist for The Telegraph and other newspapers.

In 1974 he published his first work of prose fiction, Annie, California Plates in The New Review, and in the next 10 years would write a number of short stories and radio plays, including:

Helter Skelter, Hang Sorrow, Care’ll Kill a Cat, The New Review (December, 1975). Reprinted in Cosmopolitan and included in Introduction 6: Stories by new writers, Faber and Faber (1977).
Refugees, winner of the Socialist Challenge short story competition (judges: John Fowles, Fay Weldon, Terry Eagleton), Socialist Challenge (1977).
Seven Ages, Quarto (June, 1980), broadcast as Middling by BBC Radio 3.
The Bird Has Flown, radio play, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 28 October 1976.
A Coat of Many Colours, radio play, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 26 March 1979.

In 1986 Crace published Continent. Continent won the Whitbread First Novel of the Year Award, the David Higham Prize for Fiction, and the Guardian Fiction prize. This work was followed by The Gift of Stones, Arcadia, Signals of Distress, Quarantine, Being Dead and Six. His next novel, The Pest House, will be published in the UK in March 2007.