Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

Last updated

Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

FRSL
Born (1989-06-02) 2 June 1989 (age 35) [1]
Westminster, London, England
OccupationWriter
NationalityBritish
American
Education
Genre
Notable worksHarmless Like You, Starling Days
Children1
Signature
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan signature (cropped).jpg
Website
rowanhisayo.com

Rowan Hisayo Buchanan FRSL (born 2 June 1989) is a British and American writer. Her novels include Harmless Like You, which received a Betty Trask Award and the 2017 Author's Club Best First Novel Award, and Starling Days. She is the editor of Go Home!, an anthology of stories by Asian American writers. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023. [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Buchanan was born in central London [3] to a half-Chinese, half-Japanese American mother and a British father, and grew up between London and New York. [4] She earned her B.A. from Columbia University, where she was a Core Scholar. [5] [6] She lived in Tokyo, Japan, while working as an intern for a management consulting firm, then earned her M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. [7] [8]

Career

Novels

Buchanan's debut novel, Harmless Like You, was published in the U.K. by Sceptre in 2016 and in the U.S. by W. W. Norton in 2017. The novel follows the overlapping stories of Yuki Oyama, a Japanese-American girl in 1960's New York who fights to become an artist, and her estranged son Jay, who in 2016 must travel to Berlin to confront a mother who abandoned their family when he was two. There was a "fierce" six-way bidding war among publishers for the manuscript, [9] and Harmless Like You was praised by Lorrie Moore and Alexander Chee. [10] [11]

The Guardian called Harmless Like You a "startling debut" in England. [12] The book won a Betty Trask Award and the Author's Club Best First Novel Award. [13] [14] The novel was also shortlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize, but did not win. [15] In America, The New York Times Book Review placed the hardback and paperback releases of the novel in its "Editor's Choice" section. [16] [17] National Public Radio selected Harmless Like You as a Great Read and noted that the novel was "highly anticipated". [18] Ilana Masad wrote in the Los Angeles Review of Books that "there is no doubt about how good an artist she is, for this book demonstrates that she is an excellent one". [19]

Buchanan's second novel, Starling Days, was published by Sceptre in 2019. It is about Mina and Oscar, newly-weds who have moved from New York to London in hopes that a change of scenery and new friends will help Mina recover from a major depressive episode. The novel was selected by The Paris Review as a "Staff Pick" for being "an exquisite rendering of love, sadness, and misunderstanding." [20] Starling Days was positively reviewed by Eithne Farry in the Sunday Express , [21] and The Spectator described it as "a convincing novel about depression which manages, miraculously, not to be in itself depressing." [22] In The Guardian, Molly McCloskey criticized the novel's writing, particularly its unconvincing use of a feminist viewpoint, while also noting that Starling Days contained "indications that Buchanan is a better writer than this work would suggest" and concluding that the book "offers consolation" to readers. [23] The book was shortlisted for the 2019 Costa Book Award for Novel. [24]

In 2022, Sceptre acquired the rights to publish Buchanan's third novel, titled The Sleepwatcher, which tells a story about adolescence and family from the perspective of a 16-year-old girl who is able to move around undetected while her body remains in bed. [25]

Other work

Buchanan is the editor of Go Home!, an 2018 anthology from Feminist Press in collaboration with Asian American Writers' Workshop that collects stories from Asian-American writers who "complicate and expand the idea of home". [26] She has also published fiction in literary magazines such as Granta , Tin House , and TriQuarterly . Her non-fiction and essays have appeared in The Guardian , The Atlantic , Guernica , The Paris Review , and The Rumpus , among other publications. [27]

Buchanan was a 2016 Margins Fellow at the Asian American Writers' Workshop and a 2018 Kundiman Fellow. [28] [29]

Personal life

Buchanan identifies as a Japanese-British-Chinese-American, and has said "I’ve always had my hyphens, so it's hard for me to imagine how I'd write if I was only one thing." [8] She lives and writes in the U.K. [30] Buchanan has a daughter with her partner. [31]

Works

UK editions

US editions

As editor

Related Research Articles

The University of East Anglia's Creative Writing Course was founded by Sir Malcolm Bradbury and Sir Angus Wilson in 1970. The M.A. has been regarded among the most prestigious in the United Kingdom.

Naomi Alderman is an English novelist, game writer, and television executive producer. She is best known for her speculative science fiction novel The Power, which won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2017 and has been adapted into a television series for Amazon Studios.

Gwendoline Riley is an English writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kundiman (nonprofit organization)</span>

Kundiman is a nonprofit organization for writers and readers of Asian American literature. The organization offers an annual writing retreat, readings, workshops, a mentorship program, and a poetry prize. Kundiman was co-founded in 2004 by Asian American poets Sarah Gambito and Joseph O. Legaspi, and has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Poetry Foundation, the New York Community Trust, Philippine American Writers, PAWA, and individuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenn Ashworth</span> English writer

Jenn Ashworth is an English writer born in 1982 in Preston, Lancashire. In June 2018 Ashworth was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in its "40 Under 40" initiative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadifa Mohamed</span> Somali-British novelist (born 1981)

Nadifa Mohamed is a Somali-British novelist. She featured on Granta magazine's list "Best of Young British Novelists" in 2013, and in 2014 on the Africa39 list of writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature. Her 2021 novel, The Fortune Men, was shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize, making her the first British Somali novelist to get this honour. She has also written short stories, essays, memoirs and articles in outlets including The Guardian, and contributed poetry to the anthology New Daughters of Africa. Mohamed was also a lecturer in Creative Writing in the Department of English at Royal Holloway, University of London until 2021. She became Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University in Spring 2022.

Evelyn Rose Strange "Evie" Wyld is an Anglo-Australian author. Her first novel, After the Fire, A Still Small Voice, won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 2009, and her second novel, All the Birds, Singing, won the Encore Award in 2013 and the Miles Franklin Award in 2014. Her third novel, The Bass Rock, won the Stella Prize in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diana Evans</span> British novelist, journalist and critic (born 1972)

Diana Omo Evans FRSL is a British novelist, journalist and critic who was born and lives in London. Evans has written four full-length novels. Her first novel, 26a, published in 2005, won the Orange Award for New Writers, the Betty Trask Award and the deciBel Writer of the Year award. Her third novel Ordinary People was shortlisted for the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction and won the 2019 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature. A House for Alice was published in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephanie Theobald</span> British novelist and broadcaster

Stephanie Theobald is a British novelist and broadcaster, author of Biche and three other novels. The Times described her as “One of London’s most celebrated literary lesbians.” In a Varsity 2011 interview with Theobald, the paper described her as “No ordinary female writer.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hanya Yanagihara</span> American novelist and travel writer

Hanya Yanagihara is an American novelist, editor, and travel writer. She grew up in Hawaii. She is best known for her bestselling novel A Little Life, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Booker Prize, and for being the editor-in-chief of T Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chibundu Onuzo</span> Nigerian novelist (born 1991)

Imachibundu Oluwadara Onuzo is a Nigerian novelist. Her first novel, The Spider King's Daughter, won a Betty Trask Award, was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Commonwealth Book Prize, and was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Etisalat Prize for Literature.

<i>On a Sunbeam</i> Science fiction webcomic and graphic novel

On a Sunbeam is a science fiction webcomic, by American cartoonist Tillie Walden. It was later released as a graphic novel. Set in a spacefaring science fiction world, the plot follows the development of the protagonist Mia, who joins the crew of the maintenance ship Aktis and attempts to reconnect with a lost love. It was nominated for the 2017 Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic and the graphic novel won the 2018 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

<i>The Incendiaries</i> 2018 novel by R. O. Kwon

The Incendiaries is a 2018 novel by South Korean–born American author R. O. Kwon, published by Riverhead Books. The novel was inspired by Kwon's own loss of faith in God at the age of 17, and it took her 10 years to finish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esmé Weijun Wang</span> American writer

Esmé Weijun Wang is an American writer. She is the author of The Border of Paradise (2016) and The Collected Schizophrenias (2019). She is the recipient of a Whiting Award and in 2017, Granta Magazine named her to its decennial list of the Best of Young American Novelists.

Soniah Kamal is a Pakistani-American writer. She is the author of two novels, An Isolated Incident (2014) and Unmarriageable (2019). The latter is a retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice set in Pakistan in 2000 and 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irenosen Okojie</span> Nigerian writer

Irenosen Iseghohi Okojie FRSL is a Nigerian-born short story and novel writer working in London. Her stories incorporate speculative elements and also make use of her West African heritage. Her first novel, Butterfly Fish won a Betty Trask Award in 2016, and her story "Grace Jones" won the 2020 Caine Prize for African Writing. She was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018.

Claire Adam is a Trinidadian author whose first novel Golden Child triggered critical acclaim.

<i>Wild Game</i>

Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me is a 2019 memoir by American writer Adrienne Brodeur. It recounts the author's colluding with her mother, Malabar Brewster, to conceal an affair Brewster was having while Brodeur was a teenager.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kristen Arnett</span> American fiction author and essayist (born 1980)

Kristen Arnett is an American fiction author and essayist. Her debut novel, Mostly Dead Things, was a New York Times bestseller.

<i>Unsettled Ground</i> 2021 novel by Claire Fuller

Unsettled Ground is a novel by Claire Fuller, published May 18, 2021 by Tin House Books.

References

  1. ↑ Buchanan, Rowan Hisayo. "Weird things make my grownup life feel real". Instagram . Archived from the original on 26 December 2021.
  2. ↑ Creamer, Ella (12 July 2023). "Royal Society of Literature aims to broaden representation as it announces 62 new fellows". The Guardian.
  3. ↑ "Sheltering: Rowan Hisayo Buchanan on Relationship Dynamics and Mental Health". LitHub. 13 April 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  4. ↑ Buchanan, Rowan Hisayo (8 September 2016). "Rowan Hisayo Buchanan: 'Pain shape-shifts down the generations'". The Guardian (Interview). Interviewed by Ilana Masad. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  5. ↑ Buchanan, Rowan Hisayo. "Rowan Hisayo Buchanan". Columbia University . Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  6. ↑ "Students and Faculty Embrace Classic Readings, Modern Technology | Columbia College Today". www.college.columbia.edu. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  7. ↑ Russell, Steve (8 October 2016). "My brother and I grew up eating macaroni and cheese... with chopsticks". Ipswich Star . Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  8. 1 2 Buchanan, Rowan Hisayo. "Rowan Hisayo Buchanan: About the Author" (Interview). Foyles. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  9. ↑ "Buchanan novel to Sceptre after 'fierce' six-way auction". The Bookseller. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  10. ↑ O'Nolan, Conor. "Fiction: Harmless Like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan". Irish Independent . Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  11. ↑ Buchanan, Rowan Hisayo (19 April 2018). "DEAR READER: A Q&A with Rowan Hisayo Buchanan". Tin House (Interview). Interviewed by Tin House Staff. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  12. ↑ Rhodes, Emily (7 July 2017). "Harmless Like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan review – a startling debut". The Guardian . Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  13. ↑ "Previous winners of the Betty Trask Prize and Awards". Society of Authors . Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  14. ↑ "Best First Novel Award". Authors' Club . Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  15. ↑ "Harmless Like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan". The Desmond Elliott Prize. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  16. ↑ "11 New Books We Recommend This Week". The New York Times. 16 March 2017. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  17. ↑ Khatib, Joumana (21 September 2018). "New in Paperback: 'Sticky Fingers,' 'Lea'". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  18. ↑ Buchanan, Rowan Hisayo (25 February 2017). "'Harmless Like You' Is A Story Of How Hurts Are Inherited". NPR (Interview). Interviewed by Scott Simon. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  19. ↑ Masad, Ilana (28 February 2017). "The Color of Art: On Rowan Hisayo Buchanan's Debut". Los Angeles Review of Books . Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  20. ↑ Quong, Spencer (24 May 2019). "Staff Picks: Satire, Suzi Wu, and Starling Days". The Paris Review. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  21. ↑ Farry, Eithne (21 July 2019). "A Tangled Web". Books. Sunday Express. p. 55.
  22. ↑ Peake-Tomkinson, Alex (6 July 2019). "A novel about depression that doesn't depress: Starling Days, by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, reviewed". The Spectator. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  23. ↑ McCloskey, Molly (12 July 2019). "Starling Days by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan review – a tale of struggle and survival". The Guardian . Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  24. ↑ Flood, Alison (26 November 2019). "Debut author of Queenie caps success with Costa prize shortlisting". The Guardian . Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  25. ↑ Fraser, Katie (7 April 2022). "Sceptre scoops 'moving portrait' of adolescence from Buchanan". The Bookseller. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  26. ↑ "Go Home!". Publishers Weekly . 29 January 2018. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  27. ↑ Buchanan, Rowan Hisayo (2 May 2013). "Writing". Rowan Hisayo Buchanan. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  28. ↑ "15 Kundiman Fellows Featured At LitHub!". Kundiman Foundation. 11 October 2018. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  29. ↑ "Meet AAWW's 2015 Margins Fellows!". Asian American Writers' Workshop . Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  30. ↑ Buchanan, Rowan Hisayo (19 April 2018). "DEAR READER: A Q&A with Rowan Hisayo Buchanan". Tin House (Interview). Interviewed by Tin House Staff. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  31. ↑ Rowan Hisayo Buchanan (28 December 2023). "A Christmas that changed me: I was in no mood to celebrate. Then came an epiphany on Hampstead Heath". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
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.