Jim Crace

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

Crace grew up in Forty Hill, an area at the far northern point of Greater London, close to Enfield where Crace attended Enfield Grammar School. After securing a BA (Hons) in English Literature from the University of London in 1968, he 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 Daily 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 most recent novel, The Pesthouse, was published in the UK in March 2007.

Crace's virtuosity is evident in the very different kinds of narratives that make up his oeuvre; despite living in Britain, he is more successful in the United States, as evidenced by the award of the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1999. This disparity is perhaps in part because of his working class origins and his choice of residence in "unfashionable" Birmingham away from the media and publishing industries of London. Nevertheless, generally his peers have a very high regard for his work.^{[citation needed]}

Crace is a keen amateur birdwatcher. His other major interest is live music at small venues.

[edit] Bibliography

The Pesthouse (2007)
Six (UK title: published in the US as Genesis) (2003)
The Devil's Larder (2001)
Being Dead (1999)
Quarantine (1997)
The Slow Digestions of the Night (short stories) (1995)
Signals of Distress (1994)
Arcadia (1992)
The Gift of Stones (1988)
Continent (1986)

[edit] Awards

Booker Prize for Fiction

1997 Quarantine (shortlist)

International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

1999 Being Dead (shortlist)

National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award (USA)

1999 Being Dead

Whitbread Book Awards

1999 Being Dead (Novel - shortlist)
1997 Quarantine (Novel)
1986 Continent (First Novel)

Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize

1995 Signals of Distress

American Academy of Arts and Letters

1992 E. M. Forster Award

GAP International Prize for Literature (USA)

1989 The Gift of Stones

Premio Antico Fattore

1988

Guardian Fiction Prize

1986 Continent

David Higham Prize for Fiction

1986 Continent

[edit] Criticism

Peck, Dale. "The Devil You Know." Rev. of The Devil's Larder by Jim Crace. Hatchet Jobs. New York: New, 2004. 133-49.
Tew, Philip. Jim Crace. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2006.