Sarah Hall (writer)

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Sarah Hall

Born1974 (age 5051)
Carlisle, Cumbria, England
OccupationNovelist
LanguageEnglish
Alma mater Aberystwyth University
University of St Andrews
Notable works The Electric Michelangelo (2004)
Notable awardsCommonwealth Writers' Prize (2003)

Sarah Hall FRSL (born 1974) is an English novelist and short story writer. [1] Her critically acclaimed second novel, The Electric Michelangelo , was nominated for the 2004 Man Booker Prize. She lives in Cumbria.

Contents

Biography

Hall was born in Carlisle, Cumbria. [2] She obtained a degree in English and Art History from Aberystwyth University before taking an MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of St Andrews, where she briefly taught on the undergraduate Creative Writing programme. She still teaches creative writing, regularly giving courses for the Arvon Foundation. She began her writing career as a poet, publishing poems in various literary magazines.

Her debut novel, Haweswater, is a rural tragedy about the disintegration of a community of Cumbrian hill-farmers due to the building of Haweswater Reservoir. It won the 2003 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Overall Winner, Best First Book).

Her second novel, The Electric Michelangelo , set in early twentieth-century Morecambe Bay and Coney Island, is the biography of a fictional tattoo artist. The novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2004, and she was again nominated for the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2005. In France, it was shortlisted for the Prix Femina étranger 2004.

Her third novel, The Carhullan Army, won the 2007 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize [3] and the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and it was shortlisted for the 2008 Arthur C. Clarke Award. In America, the novel was published under the title Daughters of the North.

Her 2009 novel How to Paint a Dead Man was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Hall was selected as a residential fellow at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. She later served as a juror for the foundation, awarding subsequent fellowships. [4]

In 2013, she was included in the Granta list of 20 best young British novelists. [5] In October 2013, she won the BBC National Short Story Award for "Mrs Fox". [6] [7] She won for a second time in 2020 for her story "The Grotesques".

In 2016, Hall was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. [8] In 2024, she was made an Honorary Doctor of Letters by Lancaster University, for outstanding contribution to literature. [9] She was appointed as a Professor of Creative Writing at Manchester University in March 2025. [10]

In 2017, Hall served on the panel of judges for the Man Booker Prize. [11]

All her novels are published by Faber & Faber. In June 2025, Faber announced that Hall's forthcoming novel, Helm, would be the first to include a 'Human Written' stamp to certify that it had no AI-generated content. [12] Hall devised the mark and her American publisher, Mariner Books, will also use it. [13]

Hall is a patron of Humanists UK. [14] She has lived both in the United Kingdom and in the United States (North Carolina and Virginia), but as of July 2025, she lives in Kendal. [13]

Awards and nominations

YearTitleAwardCategoryResultRef.
2003Haweswater Betty Trask Prize and Awards Betty Trask AwardWon
Commonwealth Writers' Prize Overall Best First BookWon
2004 The Electric Michelangelo Man Booker Prize Shortlisted
Orange Prize for Fiction Longlisted
2007The Carhullan Army James Tiptree Jr. Award Won
John Llewellyn Rhys Prize Won
2008 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlisted
2009 International Dublin Literary Award Longlisted
How to Paint a Dead ManMan Booker PrizeLonglisted
2010 Portico Prize FictionWon
"Butcher's Perfume" BBC National Short Story Award Shortlisted [15]
2012The Beautiful Indifference: Stories Edge Hill Short Story Prize Won [16]
Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award Shortlisted
Portico PrizeFictionWon
2013"Mrs Fox"BBC National Short Story AwardWon [17]
2016The Wolf Border James Tait Black Memorial Prize FictionShortlisted [18]
2017Madame Zero: 9 StoriesEast Anglian Book AwardsFictionWon [19] [20]
2018Edge Hill Short Story PrizeShortlisted and won Readers' Prize [16]
"Sudden Traveller"BBC National Short Story AwardShortlisted [21] [17]
2020"The Grotesques"Won [22] [23] [24]
Sudden TravellerEdge Hill Short Story PrizeShortlisted [16]
2021Burntcoat National Book Critics Circle Award Fiction Finalist
2022 South Bank Sky Arts Awards LiteratureShortlisted [25] [26]
2023International Dublin Literary AwardLonglisted

Bibliography

Novels

Short story collections

As contributor or editor

References

  1. "Sarah Hall". Contemporarywriters.com. British Council. 23 November 2011. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
  2. Wilson, N. (22 September 2004). "Booker prize". Cumberland News. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
  3. Hall, Sarah (1 December 2007). "Survivor's tale". The Guardian . Retrieved 14 October 2022. Hall discusses the influence of Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien.
  4. "Sarah Hall". Civitella Ranieri Foundation. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  5. "Archive Access". Granta.
  6. Bury, Liz (8 October 2013). "Sarah Hall's tale of woman who turns into a fox wins BBC short story award". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  7. "Sarah Hall wins the BBC National Short Story Award". BBC. 8 October 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  8. "Sarah Hall". The Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  9. "Honorary degrees for high flyers". Lancaster University. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  10. Stafford, Joe (17 March 2025). "Acclaimed author Sarah Hall joins The University's Centre for New Writing". University of Manchester. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  11. "The Man Booker Prize 2017". The Booker Prizes. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  12. Spanoudi, Melina (18 June 2025). "Faber includes 'Human Written' stamp on Sarah Hall's Helm in anti-AI bid" . The Bookseller. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  13. 1 2 Wagner, Erica (19 July 2025). "Sarah Hall: 'The Helm Wind was like a childhood friend'". The Observer. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  14. "Humanists UK announces three new patrons: S I Martin, Sarah Hall, and James Forder". Humanists UK. 28 March 2022. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  15. "BBC National Short Story Award". Story. Booktrust. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  16. 1 2 3 "Previous shortlists and winners". The Edge Hill Short Story Prize. Edge Hill University. 20 June 2022. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  17. 1 2 "Announcing the 2018 Award shortlist". BBC Radio 4. BBC. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  18. Devlin, Vivien (20 August 2016). "Edinburgh International Book Festival, The James Tait Black Prizes, Review". EdinburghGuide.com. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  19. Heaton, Trevor (24 November 2017). "Winner of the tenth East Anglian Book Awards revealed". Eastern Daily Press. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  20. "Lapwing & Fox wins East Anglian Book of the Year 2017". National Centre for Writing. 27 November 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  21. "Announcing the 2018 Award Shortlist". Faculty of English. University of Cambridge. pp. 20 September 2018.
  22. "Sarah Hall Nominated for Fourth Time as 15th BBC National Short Story Award Reveals Bold, Experimental Shortlist Celebrating a Generation of Voices". Faculty of English. University of Cambridge. 11 September 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  23. "Sarah Hall Becomes First Writer to Win BBC National Short Story Award Twice". Faculty of English. University of Cambridge. 6 October 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  24. Flood, Alison (6 October 2020). "'Master' of short story Sarah Hall becomes first to win BBC prize twice". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  25. "South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2022 – Full list of winners". WestEndTheatre.com. 10 July 2022. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  26. Evans, Connie (10 July 2022). "Little Simz and It's A Sin secure wins at South Bank Sky Arts Awards" . Retrieved 18 August 2025.