Alison Moore (writer)

Last updated

Alison Moore (born 1971) is an English writer. Born in Manchester, she lives in Leicestershire. She is an honorary lecturer in the School of English at the University of Nottingham. [1]

Contents

Work

Moore's 2012 debut novel, The Lighthouse , was shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize. [2] In reaction to the announcement, Moore commented: "Reaching the shortlist is ridiculously exciting. I keep feeling like I ought to stop daydreaming and get on with something, but it's all real." [3] Chair of the Booker jury, Sir Peter Stothard, described the jury's decision in the following words: "The judges admired The Lighthouse's bleak inner landscape, a temperature control set low and an impressively assured control." [4] The Lighthouse went on to win the 2013 McKitterick Prize. [5]

Before The Lighthouse, Moore had written and published several short stories, including 'Static', shortlisted for the inaugural Manchester Fiction Prize, [6] and 'When the Door Closed, It Was Dark', published as a chapbook by Nightjar Press [7] and included in Best British Short Stories 2011. [8] Much of this work is collected in The Pre-War House and Other Stories, [9] whose title story won first prize in the novella category of the New Writer Prose and Poetry Prizes 2009. [10]

Her second novel, He Wants, was published in 2014. Both The Lighthouse and He Wants were Observer Books of the Year. [11] [12] Her third novel, Death and the Seaside was published in 2016. In 2018, Moore published her fourth novel, Missing, [13] and a chapter book for children, Sunny and the Ghosts, which became the first in a trilogy, illustrated by Ross Collins. [14] A fifth novel The Retreat was published in 2021

Reviews

The Lighthouse

"A haunting and accomplished novel." (Katy Guest, The Independent on Sunday) [15]

He Wants

"The best novels are the ones that leave you with a sense of yearning, and in He Wants, Alison Moore proves her mastery of the medium." (Lynsey May, The List) [16]

Death and the Seaside

"Moore masterfully dials up the tension throughout, leading to an unexpected finale that feels both inevitable and deliciously satisfying." (Colette Maitland, The New Quarterly) [17]

Missing

"There are books which, when you finish reading them, force you to stop everything for a moment to acknowledge their excellence, to mark a personal encounter with something special. Missing is one of those books" (Nina Allan, The Spider's House) [18]

Sunny and the Ghosts

"There is humour and kindness alongside the mischief and mystery. A delightful and satisfying read for any age." (Jackie Law, Never Imitate) [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamila Shamsie</span> Pakistani and British writer and novelist (born 1973)

Kamila Shamsie FRSL is a Pakistani and British writer and novelist who is best known for her award-winning novel Home Fire (2017). Named on Granta magazine's list of 20 best young British writers, Shamsie has been described by The New Indian Express as "a novelist to reckon with and to look forward to." She also writes for publications including The Guardian, New Statesman, Index on Censorship and Prospect, and broadcasts on radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Mitchell (author)</span> English novelist and screenwriter (born 1969)

David Stephen Mitchell is an English novelist, television writer, and screenwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew O'Hagan</span> Scottish author (born 1968)

Andrew O'Hagan is a Scottish novelist and non-fiction author. Three of his novels have been nominated for the Booker Prize and he has won several awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Award.

The Orwell Prize is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity governed by a board of trustees. Four prizes are awarded each year: one each for a fiction and non-fiction book on politics, one for journalism and one for "Exposing Britain's Social Evils" ; between 2009 and 2012, a fifth prize was awarded for blogging. In each case, the winner is the short-listed entry which comes closest to George Orwell's own ambition to "make political writing into an art".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Costa Book Awards</span> Annual series of literary awards in five categories

The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then a brewery and owner of restaurant chains, it was renamed when Costa Coffee, then a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship. The companion Costa Short Story Award was established in 2012. Costa Coffee was purchased by the Coca-Cola Company in 2018. The awards were abruptly terminated in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alison Croggon</span> Australian writer

Alison Croggon is a contemporary Australian poet, playwright, fantasy novelist, and librettist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elif Shafak</span> Turkish novelist, essayist and womens rights activist (born 1971)

Elif Shafak is a Turkish-British novelist, essayist, public speaker, political scientist and activist.

The McKitterick Prize is a United Kingdom literary prize. It is administered by the Society of Authors. It was endowed by Tom McKitterick, who had been an editor of The Political Quarterly but had also written a novel which was never published. The prize is awarded annually for a first novel by an author over 40. As of 2009, the value of the prize was £4000.

Nicholas Royle is an English novelist, editor, publisher, literary reviewer and creative writing lecturer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kei Miller</span> Jamaican poet and fiction writer

Kei Miller is a Jamaican poet, fiction writer, essayist and blogger. He is also a professor of creative writing.

Oneworld Publications is a British independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Novin Doostdar and Juliet Mabey originally to publish accessible non-fiction by experts and academics for the general market. Based in London, it later added a literary fiction list and both a children's list and an upmarket crime list, and now publishes across a wide range of subjects, including history, politics, current affairs, popular science, religion, philosophy, and psychology, as well as literary fiction, crime fiction and suspense, and children's titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shehan Karunatilaka</span> Sri Lankan writer (born 1975)

Shehan Karunatilaka is a Sri Lankan writer. He grew up in Colombo, studied in New Zealand and has lived and worked in London, Amsterdam and Singapore. His 2010 debut novel Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew won the Commonwealth Book Prize, the DSC Prize, the Gratiaen Prize and was adjudged the second greatest cricket book of all time by Wisden. His third novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida was announced as the winner of the 2022 Booker Prize on 17 October 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart Evers</span>

Stuart Evers is a British novelist, short story writer and critic, born in Macclesfield, Cheshire in 1976. He was brought up in Congleton, Cheshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leone Ross</span> British writer (born 1969)

Leone Ross FRSL is a British novelist, short story writer, editor, journalist and academic, who is of Jamaican and Scottish ancestry.

The 2012 Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded on 16 October 2012. A longlist of twelve titles was announced on 25 July, and these were narrowed down to a shortlist of six titles, announced on 11 September. The jury was chaired by Sir Peter Stothard, editor of the Times Literary Supplement, accompanied by literary critics Dinah Birch and Bharat Tandon, historian and biographer Amanda Foreman, and Dan Stevens, actor of Downton Abbey fame with a background English Literature studies. The jury was faced with the controversy of the 2011 jury, whose approach had been seen as overly populist. Whether or not as a response to this, the 2012 jury strongly emphasised the value of literary quality and linguistic innovation as criteria for inclusion.

<i>The Lighthouse</i> (Moore novel)

The Lighthouse is a novel by English novelist Alison Moore, published on 15 August 2012. The novel deals with a middle-aged man's memories of childhood abandonment as he embarks on a walking trip through Germany. The book was shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize on 11 September 2012.

Emma Jane Unsworth is a British writer from Bury, Greater Manchester. She writes short stories and has had three novels published; Hungry, the Stars and Everything, Animals and Adults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi</span> Ugandan novelist and short story writer

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is a Ugandan-British novelist and short story writer. Her doctoral novel, The Kintu Saga, was shortlisted and won the Kwani? Manuscript Project in 2013. It was published by Kwani Trust in 2014 under the title Kintu. Her short story collection, Manchester Happened, was published in 2019. She was shortlisted for the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her story "Let's Tell This Story Properly", and emerged Regional Winner, Africa region. She was the Overall Winner of the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She was longlisted for the 2014 Etisalat Prize for Literature. She is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Lancaster University. In 2018, she was awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize in the fiction category. In 2021, her novel The First Woman won the Jhalak Prize.

Jay Bernard, FRSL, is a British writer, artist, film programmer, and activist from London, UK. Bernard has been a programmer at BFI Flare since 2014, co-editor of Oxford Poetry, and their fiction, non-fiction, and art has been published in many national and international magazines and newspapers.

Sara Collins is a Jamaican-born Caymanian-British novelist and former lawyer. She earned a Costa Book Award for her 2019 historical fiction novel The Confessions of Frannie Langton.

References

  1. ↑ "Alison Moore - author of the Man Booker shortlisted 'The Lighthouse'". www.alison-moore.com. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  2. ↑ "Alison Moore". Man Booker Prize. Archived from the original on 21 September 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  3. ↑ "Alison Moore's The Lighthouse shortlisted for 2012 Man Booker Prize". Salt Publishing. Archived from the original on 15 September 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  4. ↑ "First-time Leicestershire novelist Alison Moore is shortlisted for Booker". This is Leicestershire. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  5. ↑ "McKitterick Prize". www.societyofauthors.org. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  6. ↑ Manchester Metropolitan University. "Manchester Writing Competition 2009, Manchester Metropolitan University". Manchester Metropolitan University. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  7. ↑ "When the Door Closed, It Was Dark". Nightjar Press. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  8. ↑ Salt. "Best British Short Stories 2011". Salt. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  9. ↑ "Short stories" . Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  10. ↑ "The Pre-War House And Other Stories". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  11. ↑ "Observer Books of the Year 2012" . Retrieved 25 November 2012.
  12. ↑ "Observer Books of the Year 2014" . Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  13. ↑ Salt. "Missing". Salt. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  14. ↑ Salt. "Search: 3 results found for "sunny and the ghosts"". Salt. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  15. ↑ "The Guest List: An alternative to the Booker longlist" . The Independent. 29 July 2012. Archived from the original on 10 May 2021. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  16. ↑ "Alison Moore - He Wants". The List. 6 August 2014. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  17. ↑ "What is Colette Maitland Reading? - The New Quarterly Digital Edition". The New Quarterly. 1 September 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  18. ↑ "Missing by Alison Moore – The Spider's House" . Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  19. ↑ Law, Jackie (20 November 2018). "Book Review: Sunny and the Ghosts". neverimitate. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.