Jarred P. McGinnis (born 1976 or 1977) is an American-born writer based in France and the United Kingdom. In 2021, he was named as one of the best 10 emerging writers from the UK by The Guardian.[1]
McGinnis grew up in Siesta Key, Florida, United States.[2] The day before his 21st birthday, while studying at the University of Texas at Austin, he had a car accident that caused a spinal cord injury, resulting in paraplegia and the loss of the use of his legs.[2][3]
Before the accident McGinnis wanted to study screenwriting,[4] but he turned to computer science when he realized the need for a job and health insurance due to his disability.[2] After graduating from the University of Texas, McGinnis enrolled for the PhD program at the University of Edinburgh, and worked under Professor Dave Robertson and earned his PhD in Computer Science on Artificial Intelligence.[2][5] His doctoral thesis was titled On the Mutability of Protocols.[5]
McGinnis is married to Sarah, who dropped out of college for a year to care for him after his accident. They both returned to the University of Texas to graduate, and then moved together to Edinburgh, then to London, then to Marseille, France. They have two daughters.[2]
Writing career
McGinnis's debut novel The Coward was published in 2021.[2][6][7] Its protagonist, also named Jarred McGinnis, loses the use of his legs in a car accident and is forced to move in with his estranged father.[2] Although The Coward shares details of the author's biography, and draws on his experiences,[8][9] McGinnis has said that he has "tried not to use the term auto-fiction",[6] preferring the term "livre vecu".[10]
In 2023, McGinnis was awarded an Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer's Award for a forthcoming work for The Mountain Weight, which "mines his family’s history, from the American Civil War to the present day, to examine themes of masculinity, family and migration".[16]
The completed book, now titled There is No Meant to Be,[17] is published by Harvill Secker in March 2026.
Other activities
He is the co-founder of The Special Relationship, described as "the polymath of literary evenings", which was chosen for the British Council's International Literature Showcase.[18] He was the creative director for Moby-Dick Unabridged, a four-day immersive multimedia reading of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick at the Southbank Centre, involving hundreds of participants.[19][20]
Awards
McGinnis was awarded the 2023 Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer's award for a forthcoming work for The Mountain Weight, the other winner being Ayanna Lloyd Banwo.[21]
His first novel's French edition won the foreign books category of the Prix du Premier Roman (First Novel prize).[14]
Introduction to: Everett, Percival (16 September 2021). Percival Everett by Virgil Russell. Introduction by Jarred McGinnis. Influx Press. ISBN9781910312995.
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