Sarah Hall (writer)
{{Short description|British writer (born 1974)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2017}}
{{Infobox writer
| honorific_suffix = FRSL
| occupation = Novelist
| notable_works = The Electric Michelangelo (2004)
| language = English
| citizenship =
| alma_mater = Aberystwyth University
University of St Andrews
| awards = Commonwealth Writers' Prize (2003)
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1974}}
| birth_place = Carlisle, Cumbria, England
}}
Sarah Hall FRSL (born 1974) is an English novelist and short story writer.{{cite web |publisher=British Council |url=http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=authD4F18F62114931C08AYjK2634315 |title=Sarah Hall |website=Contemporarywriters.com |date=2011-11-23 |access-date=2011-12-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607093257/http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=authD4F18F62114931C08AYjK2634315 |archive-date=7 June 2011 |df=dmy-all }} Her critically acclaimed second novel, The Electric Michelangelo, was nominated for the 2004 Man Booker Prize. She lives in Cumbria.
Biography
Hall was born in Carlisle, Cumbria.{{cite news |last=Wilson |first=N. |date=2004-09-22 |title=Booker prize |url=http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk/booker-prize-1.462352?referrerPath=home/2.3080 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131003045806/http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk/booker-prize-1.462352?referrerPath=home%2F2.3080 |archive-date=3 October 2013 |access-date=2011-12-02 |work=Cumberland News |df=dmy-all}} 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{{Cite news |date=2007-12-01|first=Sarah|last=Hall |title=Survivor's tale |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/dec/01/featuresreviews.guardianreview16 |access-date=2022-10-14 |newspaper=The Guardian |language=en}} Hall discusses the influence of Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien. 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.
In 2013, she was included in the Granta list of 20 best young British novelists.{{Cite web|url=http://www.granta.com/Archive/123|title=Archive Access|website=Granta}} In October 2013, she won the BBC National Short Story Award for "Mrs Fox".{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/09/sarah-hall-mrs-fox-bbc-short-story-award |title=Sarah Hall's tale of woman who turns into a fox wins BBC short story award |newspaper=The Guardian |first=Liz |last=Bury |date=8 October 2013 |access-date=20 October 2013}}{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24449591 |title=Sarah Hall wins the BBC National Short Story Award |work=BBC |date=8 October 2013 |access-date=20 October 2013}} 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.{{cite web|title=Sarah Hall|url=https://rsliterature.org/fellow/sarah-hall/|website=The Royal Society of Literature|access-date=26 April 2018}} In 2024, she was made an Honorary Doctor of Letters by Lancaster University, for outstanding contribution to literature.{{Cite web |title=Honorary degrees for high flyers |url=https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/-honorary-degrees-for-high-flyers |access-date=2025-03-06 |website=Lancaster University |language=en}} She is currently Professor of Creative Writing at Manchester University.{{Cite web |title=Search for people {{!}} The University of Manchester |url=https://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/advanced.php?dn=cn=Sarah+Hall+umanroleid=1543523,ou=English+&+American+Studies+and+Centre+for+New+Writing,ou=School+of+Arts%5C,+Languages+and+Cultures,ou=Faculty+of+Humanities,ou=People,o=University+of+Manchester,c=GB&employeeType=&action=read&form_input=Submit |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=personalpages.manchester.ac.uk}}
All her novels are published by Faber & Faber. Sarah Hall has lived both in the United Kingdom and in North Carolina.
Hall is a patron of Humanists UK.{{Cite web |title=Humanists UK announces three new patrons: S I Martin, Sarah Hall, and James Forder|date=28 March 2022 |url=https://humanists.uk/2022/03/28/humanists-uk-announces-three-new-patrons-s-i-martin-sarah-hall-and-james-forder/ |access-date=2022-03-28 |website=Humanists UK |language=en}}
Awards
| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year !! Title !! Award !! Category !! Result !! {{Abbr|Ref|Reference}}. | ||||
| rowspan=2 | 2003
| rowspan="2" | Haweswater || Betty Trask Prize and Awards || Betty Trask Award || {{won}} || | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth Writers' Prize | Overall Best First Book | {{won}} | ||
| rowspan=2 | 2004
| rowspan="2" | The Electric Michelangelo || Man Booker Prize || — || {{sho}} || | ||||
| Orange Prize for Fiction | — | {{Nom|Longlisted}} | ||
| rowspan="2" |2007
| rowspan="4" |The Carhullan Army | James Tiptree Jr. Award || — || {{won}} || | ||||
| John Llewellyn Rhys Prize | — | {{won}} | ||
| 2008
| Arthur C. Clarke Award || — || {{sho}} || | ||||
| rowspan="2" |2009
|International Dublin Literary Award | | {{Nom|Longlisted}} | | ||||
| rowspan="2" | How to Paint a Dead Man | Man Booker Prize | — | {{Nom|Longlisted}} | |
| 2010
| Portico Prize || Fiction || {{won}} || | ||||
| rowspan="3" | 2012
| rowspan="3" | The Beautiful Indifference: Stories || Edge Hill Short Story Prize || — || {{won}} || | ||||
| Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award | — | {{sho}} | ||
| Portico Prize | Fiction | {{won}} | ||
| rowspan="1" | 2013
| "Mrs Fox" || BBC National Short Story Award || — || {{won}} || | ||||
| rowspan="1" | 2015
| The Wolf Border || James Tait Black Memorial Prize || Fiction || {{sho}} || | ||||
| 2017
| rowspan="2" | Madame Zero: 9 Stories || East Anglian Book Awards || Fiction || {{won}} || | ||||
| 2018
| Edge Hill Short Story Prize || — || {{sho}} || | ||||
| 2021
| rowspan="2" | Burntcoat || National Book Critics Circle Award || Fiction|| {{sho|Finalist}} || | ||||
| 2023
| International Dublin Literary Award || — || {{Nom|Longlisted}} || |
Bibliography
=Novels=
- Haweswater (2002)
- The Electric Michelangelo (2004)
- The Carhullan Army (2007)
- How to Paint a Dead Man (2009)
- The Wolf Border (2015)
- Burntcoat (2021, {{ISBN|9780571329311}})
=Short story collections=
- The Beautiful Indifference (2011)
- Mrs Fox (2014)
- Madame Zero (2017)
- Sudden Traveller (2019)
=As contributor or editor=
- Sex and Death: Stories (2016)
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110607093257/http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=authD4F18F62114931C08AYjK2634315 Sarah Hall at Contemporarywriters.com]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Sarah}}
Category:Alumni of Aberystwyth University
Category:Alumni of the University of St Andrews
Category:Date of birth missing (living people)
Category:English women novelists
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature