Julian Gough (born in England in 1966) is an Irish novelist currently living in Berlin.
His first novel, Juno & Juliet, was published in 2001 by Flamingo, almost a decade after Gough sung and wrote lyrics for the Irish 1980s cult group Toasted Heretic. His second novel, Jude: Level 1, was published in 2007[1] at Old Street Publishing, shortly after he won the BBC Short Story Award for the book's first chapter, titled "The Orphan and the Mob".[2] In 2010, Salmon Poetry released Gough's first poetry collection, Free Sex Chocolate, which juxtaposes Gough's more recent forays into poetry with his earlier lyrics written for Toasted Heretic.[3]
Gough also writes columns and opinion pieces for various newspapers and magazines, including Guardian,[4] Prospect Magazine[5] and A Public Space.[6]
In 2007, he rebelled against the decision to award the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize to writer Will Self.[7] Gough, who was nominated alongside Self, stole the prize, a pig, to keep for himself.[8] In early 2010, Gough wrote an article on the state of Irish literature, "slamming fellow Irish novelists", on his personal website.[9][10] Gough's novel Jude in London came third in the 2011 Guardian Not The Booker prize[11] after the author threatened to share pictures of him "wearing only the [Not The Booker trophy] mug" shall he win the competition[12] .