Graham Joyce
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Graham William Joyce | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 1954 Keresley, England |
| Occupation | Writer and teacher |
| Genres | Novel, Novella, Short Story |
| Literary movement | Speculative Fiction |
|
Influences
|
|
Graham Joyce (born 1954) is an English writer of speculative fiction and the recipient of numerous awards for both his novels and short stories. He grew up in a small mining village just outside of Coventry to a working class family. After receiving a B.Ed. from Bishop Lonsdale College in 1977 and a M.A. from the University of Leicester in 1980 [1], Joyce worked as a youth officer for the National Association of Youth Clubs until 1988. He subsequently quit his position and moved to the Greek islands of Lesbos and Crete to write his first novel, Dreamside. After selling Dreamside to Pan Books in 1991, Joyce moved back to England to pursue a career as a full-time writer.
Presently, Graham Joyce resides in Leicester with his wife, Suzanne Johnson, and their two children, Joseph and Ella. He teaches Creative Writing to graduate students at Nottingham Trent University.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Style and Themes
Both publishers and critics alike have found difficulty in classifying Joyce as a writer. His novels have been categorized as fantasy, science fiction, horror, and mainstream literature--with some even overlapping genres. Narratively, Joyce utilizes a wide variety of settings and character perspectives. Settings include the English Midlands, Greece, the Middle East, and the jungles of Thailand. He has penned for both adult and juvenile protagonists, with an emphasis on strong female characters. The greater unity in Joyce's works, however, lies in their thematic and philosophical topics. Bill Sheehan, who wrote the introduction for Partial Eclipse, states:
“Among the issues Graham dramatizes are the inevitability of grief, loss, growth, and change, the primal importance of family bonds, the beauty of the feminine, the life altering effects of parenthood, the nature of the creative unconscious, the overwhelming power of the erotic, the corrupting effects of power, the importance of self-awareness, and the fundamental need for order, meaning, and coherence in the face of a chaotic, inimical universe.” [3]
The mystical or supernatural often play a pivotal role in Joyce's works. For this, he taps the mythical or folkloric associations of his settings. Joyce's treatment of these experiences is what distinguishes his novels from genre fiction. The supernatural is not seen as a conflict or an obstacle to be overcome, but rather an integral part of a natural order that a character must accept and integrate. Running parallel to these phenomena is the possibility of a rational or psychological explanation. This literary approach is influenced in part by Joyce's experiences with his own family:
“My grandmother was one of these old women who used to have dreams and visions and messages arriving. She would fall asleep in a chair, there would be a knock on the door, she would go to the door, someone strange would come to the door and deliver a message. And then she would wake up again in her chair. Now my mother and my aunties told me these stories over and over again. But they just lived with it side by side. They didn't fight it as in a fantasy or horror film. They didn't have to overcome it. It didn't get worse and worse and worse. They just accepted this mystery and then they cooked the dinner.” [4]
This particular quality has prompted some critics to classify Joyce as a magic realist in the vein of such Latin writers as Gabriel García Márquez or Julio Cortázar. Joyce disagrees with this, feeling that his lineage is tied more closely to writers of the English “weird tale” such as Arthur Machen or Algernon Blackwood. He calls his style of writing “Old Peculiar.”[5]
[edit] Film
Currently, there are no films based on Joyce's novels or shorts. However, the film rights to Dreamside, The Tooth Fairy, and Dark Sister have all been optioned. As of March 2007, only Dreamside and The Tooth Fairy are in active talks.
[edit] Bibliography
According to his official site and the Internet Database of Speculative Fiction, Graham Joyce has published thirteen novels and twenty-six short stories to date.[6]
[edit] Novels and short story collections
- Dreamside (1991) ISBN 978-0-312-87546-6
- Dark Sister (1992) ISBN 978-0-312-87254-0
- House of Lost Dreams (1993) ISBN 978-0-7472-4248-2
- Requiem (1995) ISBN 978-0-312-86452-1
- The Tooth Fairy (1996) ISBN 978-0-312-86833-8
- The Stormwatcher (1997) ISBN 978-1-892389-36-7
- The Web: Spiderbite (1997) ISBN 978-1858815275
- Indigo (1999) ISBN 978-0-671-03937-0
- Smoking Poppy (2001) ISBN 978-0-671-03939-4
- The Facts of Life (2002) ISBN 978-0-7434-6342-3
- Partial Eclipse and Other Stories (2003) ISBN 978-1-931081-62-7
- The Limits of Enchantment (2005) ISBN 978-0-7434-6344-7
- TWOC (2005) ISBN 978-0-571-22513-2
- Do the Creepy Thing (2006) ISBN 978-0-571-23035-8
[edit] Short Stories
- Monastic Lives (1992)
- The Careperson (1992)
- Last Rising Sun (1992)
- The Ventriloquial Art (1993)
- The Apprentice (1993)
- Under the Pylon (1993)
- Gap-Sickness (1993)
- Eat Reecebread (1994) with Peter F. Hamilton
- The Reckoning (1994)
- Black Ball Game (1995)
- A Tip from Bobby Moore (1996)
- The White Stuff (1997) with Peter F. Hamilton
- Pinkland (1997)
- The Mountain Eats People (1998)
- As Seen on Radio (1998)
- Leningrad Nights (1999)
- Candia (1999)
- Incident in Mombassa (1999)
- Horrograph (1999)
- Partial Eclipse (2000)
- Xenos Beach (2000)
- Coventry Boy (2001)
- Leningrad Nights (2002)
- The Coventry Boy (2002)
- First, Catch Your Demon (2002)
- Black Dust (2002)
[edit] Articles
- Working Class Monster (June 2000)
- Greek Virtues
- The Great God Pan
- Two weeks, three couples and six kids equals hell
[edit] Awards
According to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, Joyce has won the following awards:[7]
| Year | Work | Award | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Dark Sister | British Fantasy Award | Best Novel |
| 1996 | Requiem | British Fantasy Award | Best Novel |
| 1997 | The Tooth Fairy | British Fantasy Award | Best Novel |
| 2000 | Indigo | British Fantasy Award | Best Novel |
| 2003 | Les Nuits de Leningrad | Imaginaire Award | Best New Foreign Work |
| 2003 | The Facts of Life | World Fantasy Award | Best Novel |
[edit] References
- ^ Review of The Limits of Enchantment by Victor Gollancz
- ^ Graham Joyce's official biography
- ^ Joyce, Graham. Partial Eclipse and Other Stories. Subterranean Press, 2003. p. 9.
- ^ Video of an Interview at Le Festival Du Film Fantastique
- ^ Audio Interview by Rick Kleffel
- ^ Summary bibliography at the Internet Database of Speculative Fiction
- ^ Excerpt of awards summary at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
