Grace McCleen (born 1981) is a British novelist. She has won the Desmond Elliott Prize, Betty Trask Award and the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize.
Grace McCleen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1981 (age 42–43) |
| Occupation | Author |
| Alma mater | |
| Notable works | The Land of Decoration (2012), The Professor of Poetry (2013) |
| Notable awards | The Desmond Elliot Prize 2012, The Betty Trask Award 2013 |
Life
editMcCleen was brought up in a fundamentalist Christian sect in Wales and for most of her childhood did not have much contact with outsiders.[1][2][3]
McCleen went to the University of Oxford to read English Literature aged 22.[4] She later completed a MA, also in English Literature, at the University of York.[1][2][5] She experienced opposition from her religious community to her decision to attend university.[6] "It was an enormous step and one I almost didn't take, and one I felt bad about taking for many years afterwards, until I realised I hadn't done anything wrong."[7]
After graduation she experienced a mental breakdown and suffered from tinnitus and Chronic fatigue syndrome.[5] During her illness, she wrote "a long novel. It didn’t work and from that novel came three novels":[8] The Land of Decoration (2012), The Professor of Poetry (2013), and The Offering (2015).
McCleen has said that she will not continue to write fiction. "Writing is really destructive to me."[5] "I feel it's sort of like a knife in me".[9] She may, however, continue to write poetry.[10]
In 2016 McCleen was writer in residence at the Brontë Parsonage Museum; McCleen's time as writer in residence inspired Every Sounding Line, a collection of poetry influenced by the Brontë family.[11] In 2017 she was writer in residence at the Manchester Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester.[6]
McCleen is also a musician, singer and songwriter.[12] She writes occasionally for The Guardian.[13]
Critical reception
editThe Land of Decoration was described by Amity Gaige in The New York Times Book Review as "Gripping ... philosophically sophisticated ... The writing is born of a genuine inquiry into the nature of religious belief, especially as it relates to one’s psychological development".[14] Chris Cleave in Financial Times called the book "loveable, unique and thrillingly uncategorisable ... an extraordinary and peculiarly haunting novel.’[15] Colin Greenland, however, in The Guardian, felt that "the world outside is ... contrived and confused ... [and that this] perilously weakens [McCleen's] argument".,[16] and Ron Charles, in The Washington Post, felt "Much of the language here is too flat and pedestrian. Other passages soar into flights of preciousness".[17]
The Professor of Poetry was described by Hilary Mantel as "an astonishing and luminous novel".[18] Hepzibah Anderson in The Observer found "sentences here of such agile cleverness, charged with wit and beauty and enchantment."[19] Kate Clanchy, also in The Observer, however, found it "conservative and anti-feminist".[20]
Sam Kitchener in The Telegraph said of The Offering that "Huge questions, of faith, time, reality, individual responsibility and human sexuality are given pained and peculiar answers".[21] Max Liu in The Independent wrote that "Some of the dense, descriptive passages are frustrating to read but difficulty is one of this novel’s enduring themes".[22]
Influences
editMcCleen has said that she is influenced by Marilynne Robinson, Cormac McCarthy, W. G. Sebald, Thomas Mann, Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, T.S. Eliot, Walt Whitman, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Franz Kafka and the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville .[2][23]
Bibliography
editNovels
edit- The Land of Decoration (2012)[3]
- The Professor of Poetry (2013)[24]
- The Offering (2015)[25]
The Land of Decoration has been translated into 16 languages.[7]
Other work
edit- Every Sounding Line (2016)
- "The Love Story", a short story in the collection How Much the Heart Can Hold: Seven Stories on Love (2016)[26]
Awards
edit- 2012 Desmond Elliott Prize – won for The Land of Decoration[27]
- 2013 Betty Trask Award – won for The Land of Decoration[28]
- 2015 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize – one of eight winners for The Offering[29]
References
edit- ^ a b "The 2012 Prize". The Desmond Elliott Prize. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ a b c Tashlee (22 March 2012). ""I think I find words hardest of all": new author Grace McCleen speaks to World of Books about her debut novel, her little people, and her inspirations". World of Books. Archived from the original on 22 May 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ a b Barr, Nicola (4 March 2012). "The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen – review". The Observer. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ "Q&A with author Grace McCleen". The Financial Times. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ a b c Kean, Danuta (6 July 2013). "Grace McCleen: 'Writing is really destructive to me'". The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ a b "Writers in residence". Centre for New Writing. University of Manchester. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ a b "About The Author". Foyles. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ "Inspirations: Grace McCleen, author of The Land of Decoration". 26. 22 March 2012. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ Kappala-Ramsamy, Gemma (26 February 2012). "Debut novelist: Grace McCleen". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ Sophie (8 August 2015). "Q&A with Grace McCleen". Fiction Uncovered. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ Knights, David (3 September 2015). "Book of Brontë-inspired poems to be launched in Haworth". Telegraph and Argus. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ Alex, Clark (22 January 2012). "Why we're watching: Grace McCleen, author". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ "Grace McCleen". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ Gage, Amity (22 June 2012). "Child of God: 'The Land of Decoration,' by Grace McCleen". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ "Small wonders". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
- ^ Greenland, Colin (23 March 2012). "The Land of Decoration by Grace McLeen – review". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ Charles, Ron (20 March 2012). ""The Land of Decoration," by Grace McCleen". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ "Writing". Archived from the original on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
- ^ Hephzibah Anderson. "The Professor of Poetry by Grace McCleen – review". The Observer. Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
- ^ Kate Clanchy. "The Professor of Poetry by Grace McCleen – review". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
- ^ Kitchener, Sam (22 January 2015). "The Offering by Grace McCleen, review: 'impressive and moving'". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 3 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ Liu, Max (18 January 2015). "The Offering by Grace McCleen, book review: Tale of a troubled past is full of emotional power". The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ "Grace McCleen". The Financial Times. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ Feay, Suzi (12 July 2013). "The Professor of Poetry, By Grace McCleen". The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ "The Offering By Grace McCleen". Hodder and Stoughton. Archived from the original on 27 September 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ Foster, Rebecca. "How Much the Heart Can Hold: Seven Stories on Love by Carys Bray and others". Bookbag. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ "The 2012 Prize". The Desmond Elliott Prize. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
- ^ "The Society of Authors". The Society of Authors. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
- ^ "Winners Announced of Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2015". Foyles.co.uk. 19 June 2015. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2017.