Jenni Fagan

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Dr Jenni Fagan

BornSeptember 1977 (1977-09) (age 47)
Scotland
OccupationNovelist, poet, screenwriter.
Education
Notable works The Panopticon
Notable awards The Gordon Burn Prize 2025, Sunday Herald Culture Awards Scottish Author of The Year 2016, Granta Best of Young British Novelist 2013.
Website
jennifagan.com

Dr Jenni Fagan FRSL (born 1977) is a Scottish novelist and poet. She has published four fiction books including novel The Panopticon, [1] [2] screenplays, eight books of poetry and a memoir, Ootlin. She was named Scottish writer of the year 2016 by The Glasgow Herald . In 2023, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. [3]

Contents

Early life

Fagan was born in 1977 [4] and grew up in Scotland within the Scottish Local Authority care system. [5] As a child she was adopted twice but neither placement worked out well. [6] She spent six years living on a caravan park, [6] [7] and states that while she was a child she moved 26 times. [4] After leaving the care system, Fagan was homeless for several years, living in homeless accommodation. [8]

In 2007, she received the Dewar Arts award, which enabled her to attend Norwich School of Art and Design, going on to read for a BA at University of Greenwich, from which she graduated first class. She went on to study for an MA at Royal Holloway, University of London, where she was taught by Andrew Motion. [9] In 2020, Fagan was awarded a PhD in Creative Writing by the University of Edinburgh. [10] Her PhD supervisor was Dr Alan Gillis. [11]

Career

With the publication of her first novel in 2013, Fagan was listed by Granta as one of the 2013 Granta Best Young British Novelists. [12] The Panopticon was well received in the press, with The New York Times describing her writing by saying: "...there is no resisting the tidal rollout of Fagan's imagery. Her prose beats behind your eyelids..." [13] and also describing Fagan as The Patron Saint of Literary Street Urchins." [14]

Her second novel, The Sunlight Pilgrims released in 2016, tells the story of a transgender young girl named Stella who lives on a caravan park and is based around the relationships she forms while growing up, set against a backdrop of rural Scotland during a period of freezing climate change. Writer Ben Myers described it as "prose that sparkles from the first page." [15]

Fagan was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award in 2017 with The Waken. [16]

Fagan mentors young writers and works with young people, including offenders and those in the prison system. She curated an art exhibition at Tramway in Glasgow entitled Narrative for Koestler Trust in 2017. It showcased artwork by prisoners, young offenders and those in secure psychiatric care from across Scotland. [17]

In 2017, as part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Fagan and four other Scottish writers took part in the Outriders Project, which involved taking road trips across the continent of America with local writers to explore partnerships while writing and blogging throughout the journey. Fagan's journey entailed travelling from the Rust Belt to Silicon Valley where she explored "questions on the nature of truth." She was accompanied by American novelist Bonnie Jo Campbell. [18] The subsequent novel length poem called Truth was published by Tangerine Press in Autumn 2019. [19]

During a writing residency at Shakespeare and Company in Paris Fagan wrote some of the poetry which made up her poetry collection There’s a Witch in the Word Machine. [20] She has also been Writer in Residence at the University of Edinburgh, Lewisham Hospital's neonatal unit, Norfolk Blind Association, and has collaborated with a women's prison and various youth organisations over many years. [7] She was a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellow at Grez-sur-Loing for a month in 2018, supported by The Scottish Book Trust. She also curated an exhibition of prisoner's work from all across the UK at The Tramway in Glasgow for the Koestler Trust, in 2017.

Fagan directed her first short film in 2018, a cine-poem about Bangour Village Hospital where she was born. She has also experimented with other media such as sculpture when she created a giant metal scold's bridle onto which she engraved words by women prisoners from the UK and USA, including submissions from women on death row. [8] She went on to write and direct a short film, Heart of Glass, in 2022 for BBC Four. [21] [22]

In October 2024 Fagan travelled to Wellington, New Zealand, for the inaugural Island to Island exchange. [23] Her exchange partner was the poet and visual artist essa may ranapiri. In the same year, she was commissioned by The Macallan distillery to write a series of poems to commemorate the distillery's 200th anniversary. These were combined with artworks by Catalan artist Javi Aznarez in a travelling exhibition [24] [25] and limited-edition book. [26]

Adaptations

It was reported in May 2022 that the production company, Buccaneer Scotland, had made a deal with Fagan to take options to film her novels The Panopticon and Luckenbooth for television. The same report noted that she had been contracted to write the screenplay for a TV version of Irvine Welsh's novel The Blade Artist . [27]

Awards and nominations

YearTitleAwardCategoryResultRef.
2010The Dead Queen of Bohemia 3:AM AwardsPoetry Book of the YearWon [28]
2012 The Panopticon Waterstones 11 Won [29]
2013 Desmond Elliott Prize Shortlisted [30]
James Tait Black Memorial Prize FictionShortlisted [31]
2016The Sunlight Pilgrims Saltire Society Literary Awards Fiction Book of the YearShortlisted [32] [33]
Sunday Herald Culture AwardsScottish Author of the YearWon [34]
2017 Encore Award Shortlisted [35]
"The Waken" BBC National Short Story Award Shortlisted [36] [37]
2025Ootlin Gordon Burn Prize Won [38] [39]
Women's Prize Women's Prize for Non-Fiction Longlisted [40] [41]

In addition to the awards for specific works, Fagan was named in the 2013 Granta list of Best Young British Novelists [42]

Works

Novels

Non-Fiction

Poetry

Short stories

References

  1. Robinson, David (16 April 2013). "Jenni Fagan on life in care and her new novel". The Scotsman. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  2. Charles, Ron (30 July 2013). "Fiction: 'The Panopticon', by Jenni Fagan". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 11 September 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  3. Creamer, Ella (12 July 2023). "Royal Society of Literature aims to broaden representation as it announces 62 new fellows". The Guardian.
  4. 1 2 "Q and A with author Jenni Fagan". Financial Times. 8 April 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  5. Kappala Ramsamy (14 April 2012). "Debut author: Jenni Fagan". The Observer. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  6. 1 2 Robinson, David. "Jenni Fagan on life in care and her new novel". The Scotsman. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  7. 1 2 Hackett, Sarah (11 April 2016). "Author Q&A: Jenni Fagan". The Big Issue North. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  8. 1 2 Miller, Phil (13 October 2017). "Jenni Fagan: "If art is to be used to offer rehabilitation within the prison system or young offenders, then each artwork should be able to stand alone"". The Herald. Glasgow. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  9. "Jenni Fagan". Dewar Arts Awards. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  10. Fagan, Jenni (2020). Luckenbooth and The metamorphosis of a novel (inspired by Kafka's The Metamorphosis) (PhD thesis). Edinburgh: The University of Edinburgh. doi:10.7488/era/1334 . Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  11. "Jenni Fagan". The University of Edinburgh. 4 May 2018. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  12. Allen, Katie (15 April 2013). "Granta list 'proves publishing has broadened horizons'". The Bookseller. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  13. Shone, Tom (18 July 2013). "Surveillance State". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  14. Kakutani, Michiko (15 July 2013). "Scrappy Survivor vs. All-Seeing Eye". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  15. Myers, Ben (15 June 2016). "Cold comforts: exploring the uncertainty of climate change through fiction". New Statesman. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  16. "The Waken". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  17. "Narrative: Jenni Fagan on rehabilitation through art". Creative Scotland. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  18. "Edinburgh International Book Festival's Outriders Take Five Journeys Across the Americas". Edinburgh International Book Festival. 20 March 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  19. "JENNI FAGAN : THERE'S A WITCH IN THE WORD MACHINE". St Magnus International Festival. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  20. Simpson, Jan (2 November 2018). "Jenni Fagan – There's a Witch in the Word Machine". The Wee Review. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  21. Mangan, Lucy (20 March 2022). "Skint review – a vivid, unflinching examination of modern poverty". The Guardian . Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  22. "Skint: Series 1, Heart of Glass". BBC Programme Index . BBC. 27 March 2022. Retrieved 19 August 2025.
  23. "'Island to Island' Residency Exchange for writers from Scotland and Aotearoa". British Council New Zealand. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  24. Tanskul, Nicky (3 October 2024). "A Two-Century Legacy: Inside The Macallan's 'The Heart of the Spirit' Experience in Singapore". Prestige. Retrieved 19 August 2025.
  25. "The Macallan presents The Heart of the Spirit showcase". where2lifestylemagazine. 17 August 2024. Retrieved 19 August 2025.
  26. "The Heart of The Spirit book". The Macallan. Retrieved 19 August 2025.
  27. Goldbart, Max (16 May 2022). "Acclaimed Scottish Scribe Jenni Fagan Signs Development Deal With 'Marcella' Producer Buccaneer To Adapt Two Novels". Deadline. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  28. "3:AM Awards 2010". 3:AM Magazine. 5 January 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  29. Singh, Anita (20 January 2012). "Waterstones 11: the literary ones to watch". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 19 February 2019 via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  30. Flood, Alison (27 June 2013). "Desmond Elliott prize goes to former computer programmer". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  31. "Past Winners". New Zealand Book Awards. New Zealand Book Awards Trust. Retrieved 19 August 2025.
  32. Cowdrey, Katherine (20 October 2016). "Welsh, Kelman and Fagan shortlisted at 2016 Saltire Society Literary Awards" . The Bookseller. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  33. "2016 Saltire Awards – Shortlists Announced". Scottish Review of Books. 21 October 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  34. Duffy, Judith (10 July 2016). "And the winner is ... Scotland! Sunday Herald's 'Cultural Oscars' celebrate the nation's greatest stars and artists". The Herald. Glasgow. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  35. "The Encore Award for the best second novel" (PDF). Royal Society of Literature. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 February 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  36. "Announcing the 2017 Award shortlist". BBC Radio 4. BBC. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  37. "Meet the authors: National Short Story Award 2017". BBC Radio 4. BBC. 3 October 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  38. Creamer, Ella (6 March 2025). "Jenni Fagan's 'visceral' memoir of growing up in care wins Gordon Burn prize" . Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  39. "Fagan wins 2025 Gordon Burn Prize". Books+Publishing. 13 March 2025. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
  40. "Announcing the 2025 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction longlist!". Women's Prize. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  41. Spencer-Elliott, Lydia (12 February 2025). "Women's Prize for Nonfiction 2025 longlist is here – and British authors dominate the selection". The Independent. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  42. Ferguson, Brian (21 October 2013). "Jenni Fagan clinches deal for The Panopticon film". The Scotsman. Retrieved 22 October 2013.