Cal Flyn

Flyn was born in Inverness, Scotland. She attended Charleston Academy, a state secondary school.{{Cite web |last=Hadjidemetri |first=Anastasia |url=https://www.booktopia.com.au/blog/2016/05/25/cal-flynn/|title=History, Secrets and Guilt: Cal Flyn, author of Thicker Than Water answers Booktopia’s Ten Terrifying Questions |website=Booktopia |access-date=2022-12-13}} As a child, she underwent orthopedic surgery to correct proximal femoral focal deficiency affecting the left leg.{{cite news |last=Flyn |first=Cal |title=I go to the hospital to lengthen my leg. So far! So good! |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/i-go-to-the-hospital-to-lengthen-my-leg-so-far-so-good-zncqqkdltjz |access-date=13 December 2022 |work=The Sunday Times Magazine |date=14 September 2014 |language=en |url-access=limited |archive-url=https://archive.today/20211018034819/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-go-to-the-hospital-to-lengthen-my-leg-so-far-so-good-zncqqkdltjz |archive-date=2021-10-18 |url-status=live}}

Flyn holds an MA in experimental psychology from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and a NCTJ certificate in newspaper journalism from Lambeth College.{{cite web |title=Cal Flyn |url=https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/author/cal-flyn |website=World of Books |access-date=5 August 2021}}{{cite web |title=LMH alumni writers feature in The Times Best Books of 2021 |url=https://www.lmh.ox.ac.uk/news/lmh-alumni-writers-feature-times-best-books-2021 |website=Lady Margaret Hall |date=20 November 2021 |access-date=17 February 2024 |language=en}}

After graduation, Flyn worked as a reporter for The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph. She left her job in 2012 to work at a dog-sledding kennels in Finnish Lapland.{{cite news |last1=Flyn |first1=Cal |title=My winter on a husky farm in the Arctic Circle |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/safaris-and-wildlife/My-winter-on-a-husky-farm-in-the-Arctic-Circle/ |access-date=13 December 2022 |work=The Telegraph Magazine |date=20 December 2013 |language=en}}

Flyn is the deputy editor of the literary recommendations website Five Books{{Cite web |title=Cal Flyn |url=https://fivebooks.com/people/cal-flyn/ |access-date=16 November 2022 |website=Five Books}}

She was made a MacDowell fellow in 2019.{{cite web |title=Cal Flyn - Artist |url=https://www.macdowell.org/artists/cal-flyn |website=MacDowell |access-date=5 August 2021 |language=en}} In 2022, she was declared 'Young Writer of the Year' by The Sunday Times.{{Cite web |title=Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year: Cal Flyn |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/sunday-times-young-writer-of-the-year-interview-cal-flyn-6j78fqpx2?gclid=Cj0KCQiAsdKbBhDHARIsANJ6-jczHbXs4wtYEFnuAGH0bmvpyliKi0c9xPYxgWD1pahuOWYSw9OOgQ0aAgDEEALw_wcB |access-date=16 November 2022 |website=The Times}}

She is the author of nonfiction books Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape (2022){{Cite web|url=https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/islands-of-abandonment-life-in-the-post-human-landscape-cal-flyn?variant=39445838790734 |title=Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape |website=HarperCollins Publishers |access-date=2022-12-13}} and Thicker Than Water: History, Secrets, and Guilt (2016),{{Cite web|url=https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/thicker-than-water-history-secrets-and-guilt-a-memoir-cal-flyn?variant=32556895764558 |title=Thicker Than Water: History, Secrets and Guilt: A Memoir |website=HarperCollins Publishers |access-date=2022-12-13}} and has published essays and articles in Granta, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Sunday Times Magazine, and other publications.{{Cite web|url=https://granta.com/contributor/cal-flyn/ |title=Cal Flyn contributor page |website=Granta |access-date=2022-12-13}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/cal-flyn |title=Cal Flyn profile |website=The Guardian |access-date=2022-12-13}}{{cite news |last1=Flyn |first1=Cal |title=When Pollution Drives Evolution |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-pollution-drives-evolution-11622729184 |access-date=13 December 2022 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=3 June 2021 |language=en}}

Her first book, Thicker Than Water, tells the story of a distant relative, Angus McMillan, who is believed to have been one of the ringleaders of the Gippsland massacres of Gunaikurnai aboriginal people.{{cite news |last1=Reid |first1=Melanie |title=Books: Thicker Than Water — History, Secrets and Guilt: A Memoir by Cal Flyn |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/books-thicker-than-water-history-secrets-and-guilt-a-memoir-by-cal-flyn-sc2jvmwmt |access-date=5 August 2021 |work=The Times |date=28 May 2016 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Lowry |first1=Elizabeth |title=Thicker Than Water by Cal Flyn review – my ancestor the murderer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/02/thicker-than-water-cal-flyn-review-angus-macmillan |access-date=5 August 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=2 June 2016 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=O'Mahony |first1=Ciaran |title=The Scottish explorer who became the butcher of Gippsland |url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/08/the-scottish-explorer-who-became-the-butcher-of-gippsland |access-date=9 March 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=7 March 2019}} Her second book, Islands of Abandonment, is an exploration of places where nature is reclaiming lands once occupied by humans, such as Plymouth, Montserrat, and Chernobyl.{{cite news |last=Jamie |first=Kathleen |title=How nature reclaims the places humans have abandoned |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2021/01/islands-of-abandonment-cal-flyn-review |access-date=25 February 2024 |work=New Statesman |date=20 January 2021 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=McDonald |first1=Sally |title=Wild and abandoned: Writer Cal Flyn charts her journey to the world’s disaster zones and ghost towns |url=https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/writer-cal-flyn/ |access-date=5 August 2021 |work=The Sunday Post |date=16 March 2021}}

Islands of Abandonment won the John Burroughs Medal for natural history writing.{{Cite web |title=2022 AWARD WINNERS: |url=https://www.johnburroughsassociation.org/literary-awards/about-the-awards |access-date=16 November 2022 |website=John Burroughs Association}} It was also shortlisted for the 2021 Wainwright Prize for writing on global conservation,{{cite web |title=2021 Shortlist Announcement |url=https://wainwrightprize.com/news/2021-shortlist-announcement/ |website=Wainwright Prize |access-date=5 August 2021 |date=4 August 2021}} the 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize{{Cite web |title=RSL Ondaatje Prize 2022 Shortlist Announced |url=https://rsliterature.org/rsl-ondaatje-prize-2022-shortlist-announced/ |website=The Royal Society of Literature |date=20 April 2022 |access-date=27 February 2024}} and the British Academy Book Prize,{{Cite web |title=Shortlist announced for the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding 2021 |url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/shortlist-announced-for-the-british-academy-book-prize-for-global-cultural-understanding-2021/ |access-date=13 December 2022}} among others.

Flyn's third book The Savage Landscape is planned for publication in 2025.{{Cite web |last=Spanoudi |first=Melina |title=William Collins scoops new book by Islands of Abandonment author Flyn |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/william-collins-scoops-new-book-by-islands-of-abandonment-author-flyn |access-date=2023-10-09 |website=The Bookseller |language=en |url-access=registration |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240225161558/https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/william-collins-scoops-new-book-by-islands-of-abandonment-author-flyn |archive-date=2024-02-25 |url-status=live}}

Flyn lives in the Orkney Islands.{{Cite web |last=Jana |first=Rosalind |title=Author Cal Flyn on the Landscapes Left Behind |url=https://www.toa.st/blogs/magazine/cal-flyn-landscapes-left-behind |date=31 August 2021 |access-date=13 December 2022 |website=TOAST Magazine}}

• Thicker Than Water: History, Secrets and Guilt: A Memoir (2016, William Collins: {{ISBN|978-0008126605}})
• Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape (2020, William Collins: {{ISBN|978-0008329761}})

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• {{official website|https://www.calflyn.com/}}
• {{cite news |title=Surrendering Control, Review by: Profile Editorial Team |url=https://profilecritics.com/content/review/Islands_of_Abandonment |work=profilecritics.com |date=24 June 2022}}
• {{cite news |title=Interview with Cal Flyn, Profile magazine |url=https://profilecritics.com/content/interview/Cal_Flyn_interview |work=profilecritics.com |date=11 July 2022}}
• {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ginJ7n-KgCU&t=312s | title=Cal Flyn in conversation about 'Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape' |publisher=Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts |date= February 18, 2021 | website=YouTube }} (conversation with Ella Mershon, Newcastle University lecturer in Victorian literature)
• {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0Z4l1jMA-k | title=At Home with Literati: Cal Flyn & David Haskell |date=July 13, 2022 |publisher=Literati Bookstore (Ann Arbor, Michigan) |website=YouTube }} (recorded on June 29, 2022; conversation with biologist David G. Haskell)

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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century Scottish women writers

Category:British women journalists

Category:Scottish non-fiction writers

Category:Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford

Category:People from Highland (council area)