BiographyNovelist and short-story writer A(lison) L(ouise) Kennedy was born in Dundee, Scotland on 22 October 1965. She studied English and Drama at Warwick University where she began writing dramatic monologues and short stories. She was Writer in Residence for Hamilton and East Kilbride Social Work Department and won the 1990 Social Work Today Award. She has worked for the arts and special needs charity Project Ability since 1989, first as Writer in Residence (1989-95), then as editor of Outside Lines magazine, and has been a member of the Management Committee since 1998. |
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Her first book, Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains (1990), a bleak collection of short stories set in Scotland, won several awards including the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, a Scottish Arts Council Boo
k Award and the Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award. In 1993 she was named as one of Granta magazine's 20 'Best of Young British Novelists 2'. Other short story collections include Now That You're Back (1994) and Original Bliss (1997), and her novels include: Looking for the Possible Dance (1993), which centres on a young Scottish woman's relationships with her father, her lover and her employer; So I Am Glad (1995), winner of the Encore Award, which focuses on the trauma of child sexual abuse and its consequences in adulthood; and Everything You Need (1999), the story of a middle-aged writer living on a remote island and his attempt to build a relationship with his estranged daughter.
She wrote the screenplay to the BFI/Channel 4 film Stella Does Tricks, released in 1998, and edited New Writing 9 (2000) with John Fowles, published in the UK by Vintage in association with the British Council. Her book of short stories, Indelible Acts, was published in 2002.
A. L. Kennedy lives and works in Glasgow and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2003 she was nominated by Granta magazine as one of 20 'Best of Young British Novelists'. Her latest novel is Day (2007), won the 2007 Costa Book of the Year Award and the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year.
Bibliography
Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains Polygon, 1990
Looking for the Possible Dance Secker & Warburg, 1993
Now That You're Back Cape, 1994
Last Things First - New Writing Scotland 13: Part of the 1995 Scottish Book Fortnight Promotion (co-editor with Jim McGonigal and Meg Bateman) Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 1995
So I Am Glad Cape, 1995
Tea and Biscuits Phoenix, 1996
Original Bliss Cape, 1997
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp British Film Institute, 1997
Everything You Need Cape, 1999
On Bullfighting Yellow Jersey Press, 1999
New Writing 9 (editor with John Fowles) Vintage, 2000
Indelible Acts Cape, 2002
Paradise Cape, 2004
Day Cape, 2007
Prizes and awards
1990 Social Work Today Award
1991 Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains
1991 Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains
1991 Scottish Arts Council Book Award Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains
1993 Scottish Arts Council Book Award Looking for the Possible Dance
1993 Somerset Maugham Award Looking for the Possible Dance
1994 Scottish Arts Council Book Award Now That You're Back
1995 Encore Award So I Am Glad
1995 McVitie's Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year (shortlist) So I Am Glad
1995 Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award So I Am Glad
1995 Scottish Arts Council Book Award So I Am Glad
1999 Scottish Arts Council Book Award Everything You Need
2004 Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award (shortlist) Paradise
2007 Costa Book of the Year Award Day
2007 Costa Novel Award Day
2007 Lannan Literary Award (Fiction)
2007 Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award Day
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