Alice Winn
{{Short description|Irish-American novelist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date= August 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Alice Winn
| image = Alice Winn 2023 Texas Book Festival.jpg
| caption = Winn in 2023
| birth_name = Alice Mary Felicity Winn
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1992|12|20|df=y}}
| birth_place = Paris, France
| death_date =
| death_place =
| education = Marlborough College
St Peter's College, Oxford
| occupation = Novelist and screenwriter
| known for =
| notable_works = In Memoriam (2023)
| spouse = Chris Turner
| partner =
| children = 1
| parents =
| relatives =
| website = [http://www.alicewinn.com www.alicewinn.com]
}}
Alice Mary Felicity Winn (born 20 December 1992){{cite web |title=Winn, Alice (Alice Mary Felicity), 1992- |url=https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2021063250.html |website=LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress) |access-date=18 January 2024}} is an Irish and American novelist and screenwriter, born in France and educated in England.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/25/alice-winn-we-live-in-the-fossilised-wreckage-of-world-war-one-in-memoriam-interview|title=Alice Winn: 'We live in the fossilised wreckage of world war one'|journal=The Guardian|first=Anthony|last=Cummins|date=25 November 2023|accessdate=24 August 2024}} She won the 2023 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize for her novel In Memoriam.
Early life and education
Winn was born and raised in Paris, the daughter of Irish and American parents.{{cite news |last1=Harris |first1=Elizabeth A. |date=2023-03-05 |title=A Debut Novel Creates a World From Pages Taken From the Past |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/05/books/alice-winn-novel-memoriam.html |url-status=live |access-date=2023-08-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230614084254/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/05/books/alice-winn-novel-memoriam.html |archive-date=2023-06-14}} She holds Irish citizenship.{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/2024/03/23/alice-winn-on-her-acclaimed-in-memoriam-i-wrote-the-novel-because-i-felt-alone-in-a-grief-from-another-century/|title=Alice Winn on her acclaimed In Memoriam: 'I wrote the novel because I felt alone in a grief from another century'|newspaper=The Irish Times|first=Martin|last=Doyle|date=23 March 2024|accessdate=24 August 2024}} She has dyslexia and did not learn to read until she was nine years old. Winn was educated at Marlborough College in England.{{cite news |last1=Anderson |first1=Hephzibah |date=2023-03-12 |title=In Memoriam by Alice Winn review – a vivid rendering of love and frontline brutality in the first world war |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/12/in-memoriam-by-alice-winn-review-a-vivid-rendering-of-love-and-frontline-brutality-in-the-first-world-war |url-status=live |access-date=2023-08-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824200739/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/12/in-memoriam-by-alice-winn-review-a-vivid-rendering-of-love-and-frontline-brutality-in-the-first-world-war |archive-date=2023-08-24}} She graduated with a degree in English literature from St Peter's College, Oxford.{{cite news |date=2023-08-24 |title=Alice Winn's In Memoriam scoops Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2023 |work=Oxford Mail |url=https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/national/23746181.alice-winns-memoriam-scoops-waterstones-debut-fiction-prize-2023/ |url-status=live |access-date=24 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824201736/https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/national/23746181.alice-winns-memoriam-scoops-waterstones-debut-fiction-prize-2023/ |archive-date=2023-08-24}} She has described having a "tenuous grasp" of her identity.
Career
After graduating, Winn set a goal of writing "a novel a year until I wrote one that was good." Before writing In Memoriam, Winn wrote three unpublished novels, worked on screenplays, and taught homeschooled children.
In 2019, Winn started writing In Memoriam after reading student newspapers published 1913–1919 from her alma mater, Marlborough College. The protagonists, Gaunt and Ellwood, were inspired by her readings of and about Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon, respectively.
Personal life
Winn lives in Brooklyn. Her husband, Chris Turner, is a British comedian, and they have a daughter together.{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Gwendolyn |date=2023-04-05 |title=Alice Winn on her hit novel In Memoriam: 'Queer people were the voices of the First World War' |url=https://inews.co.uk/culture/books/alice-winn-novel-in-memorium-queer-people-voices-first-world-war-2251772 |access-date=2023-08-26 |website=I |language=en}}
Awards and honors
In 2023, Winn won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize for In Memoriam.{{cite news |last1=Creamer |first1=Ella |date=2023-08-24 |title=Alice Winn wins 2023 Waterstones debut fiction prize for In Memoriam |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/24/alice-winn-wins-2023-waterstones-debut-fiction-prize-for-in-memoriam |url-status=live |access-date=2023-08-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824200738/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/24/alice-winn-wins-2023-waterstones-debut-fiction-prize-for-in-memoriam |archive-date=2023-08-24}}{{Cite web |last=Schaub |first=Michael |date=2023-08-25 |title=Alice Winn Awarded Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/alice-winn-awarded-waterstones-debut-fiction-prize/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230826104617/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/alice-winn-awarded-waterstones-debut-fiction-prize/ |archive-date=2023-08-26 |access-date=2023-08-26 |website=Kirkus Reviews }} The book was also nominated for the 2023 Waterstones Book of the Year and won the Waterstones Novel of the Year.{{cite news |newspaper=Gazette and Herald |title=Former Marlborough College student wins Waterstones Novel of the Year |date=2023-12-04 |first=Sarah |last=Dalton |url=https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/23961715.former-marlborough-college-student-wins-waterstones-novel-year/ }} In October 2024 the German translation ({{Lang|de|Durch das große Feuer}}) won the Young Adult Jury Award of the German Youth Literature Awards at the Frankfurt Book Fair.{{cite web |url=https://www.jugendliteratur.org/buch/durch-das-grosse-feuer-4358-9783961611607/?page_id=1 |title=Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis 2024 |website=Arbeitskreis für Jugendliteratur e.V. |access-date=2024-10-28 |language=de }}
Publications
- {{Cite book |title=In Memoriam |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |year=2023 |isbn=9780593534564}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Winn, Alice}}
Category:21st-century American novelists
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:21st-century Irish novelists
Category:21st-century Irish women writers
Category:Alumni of St Peter's College, Oxford
Category:American women novelists
Category:French people of American descent
Category:French people of Irish descent
Category:Irish women novelists