Toby Litt

Litt was born in Ampthill, England, in 1968.{{cite web|url=https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/toby-litt|title=Toby Litt |website=British Council Literature|publisher=British Council|access-date=14 January 2016}} He was educated at Bedford Modern School,School of the Black and Red, by A.G. Underwood (1980); updated (2010), p. 286 read English at Worcester College, Oxford and studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where he was taught by Malcolm Bradbury.

A short story by Litt was included in the anthology All Hail the New Puritans (2000), edited by Matt Thorne and Nicholas Blincoe, and he has edited The Outcry (2001), Henry James's last completed novel, for Penguin in the UK. In 2003 he was nominated by Granta magazine as one of the 20 "Best of Young British Novelists",{{cite web|url=http://www.writershub.co.uk/birkbeck.php|title=writers' hub - birkbeck|work=writers' hub|access-date=12 July 2015}} although his work since then has met with mixed reviews, one reviewer in The Guardian writing that his novel I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay "goes on ... and on, and on. There is plenty of story here, but little plot, and no tension."Tadzio Koelb, "I Play the Drums in a Band Called okay", The Guardian 27 March 2009 [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/mar/27/toby-litt]

Litt edited the 13th edition of New Writing (the British Council's annual anthology of the finest contemporary writing in fiction, non-fiction and poetry){{cite book|title=New writing 13|oclc = 57355906}} and is known for naming his books in alphabetical order.

Litt wrote an interactive short story, using LiveJournal and Twitter, as part of the Penguin We Tell Stories project.{{cite web|url=http://www.wetellstories.co.uk/authors/toby-litt|title=We Tell Stories - Authors: Toby Litt|work=wetellstories.co.uk|access-date=12 July 2015}} He is currently a lecturer in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London,{{cite web|url=http://www.bbk.ac.uk/english/our-staff/full-time-academic-staff/litt|title=Toby Litt|work=bbk.ac.uk|access-date=12 July 2015}} and led the campaign to get Arvind Mehrotra elected as the Oxford Professor of Poetry following Ruth Padel's resignation.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/23/mehrotra-oxford-poetry-professor|title=Little-known Indian writer joins race for Oxford poetry professor|author=Alison Flood|date=23 April 2009 |access-date=12 July 2015}} In 2011, he took part in the Bush Theatre's Sixty-Six Books project, for which he wrote a piece based upon a book of the King James Bible.{{cite web|url=http://www.whatsonstage.com/west-end-theatre/news/06-2011/bush-inaugurates-library-home-with-66-books_8645.html|title=Bush Inaugurates Library Home with 66 Books|author=Terri Paddock|date=9 June 2011|work=WhatsOnStage.com|access-date=12 July 2015}}

Litt was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023.{{Cite news |last=Creamer |first=Ella |date=2023-07-12 |title=Royal Society of Literature aims to broaden representation as it announces 62 new fellows |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/12/royal-society-of-literature-aims-to-broaden-representation-as-it-announces-62-new-fellows |access-date=2023-07-13 |issn=0261-3077}}

• Adventures in Capitalism (collection of short stories, 1996, {{ISBN|0-14-100795-8}})
• Beatniks (1997, {{ISBN|0-14-101793-7}})
• Corpsing (2000, {{ISBN|0-14-028577-6}})
• deadkidsongs (2001, {{ISBN|0-14-028578-4}})
• Exhibitionism (collection of short stories, 2002, {{ISBN|0-14-100653-6}})
• Finding Myself (2003, {{ISBN|0-14-100654-4}})
• Ghost Story (2004, {{ISBN|0-241-14278-4}})
• Hospital, (2007, {{ISBN|0-241-14280-6}})
• I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay (2008, {{ISBN|978-0-241-14282-0}})
• Journey into Space (2009, {{ISBN|978-0-14-103971-8}}){{cite news | url=http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2009/04/litt-space-armenia-journey | title=Somewhere not here | work=New Statesman | date=16 April 2009 | access-date=29 February 2012 | author=Akam, Simon}}{{cite news | url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/3429986/the-wide-blue-yonder.thtml | title=The wide blue yonder | work=The Spectator | date=14 March 2009 | access-date=29 February 2012 | author=McKie, Andrew | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302205842/http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/3429986/the-wide-blue-yonder.thtml | archive-date=2 March 2012 | df=dmy-all }}
• King Death (2010, {{ISBN|978-0-14-103972-5}})
• Lilian's Spell Book (2013, {{ISBN|978-1999802103}})
• Life-Like (2014, {{ISBN|978-0857422071}})
• Monster (in The Book of Other People, ed. Zadie Smith, 2007)
• Notes For A Young Gentleman (2018, {{ISBN|978-0857424853}})
• O (short stories - exists){{Cite web|url=https://tobylitt.wordpress.com/books/|title=BOOKS|date=16 August 2013}}
• Patience (2019, {{ISBN|978-1910296998}})

• Dead Boy Detectives (2014)

• Wrestliana (2018, {{ISBN|978-1910296912}})

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website}}
• [http://www.myspace.com/tobylitt MySpace: Toby Litt]
• [http://www.3ammagazine.com/litarchives/2003/oct/interview_toby_litt.html Interview]
• {{British council|id=toby-litt|name=Toby Litt}}
• Birkbeck, School of English & Humanities [http://www.bbk.ac.uk/eh/staff/LittToby Department of English, Theatre and Creative Writing — Birkbeck, University of London]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Litt, Toby}}

Category:1968 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century English short story writers

Category:21st-century English male writers

Category:21st-century English novelists

Category:Academics of Birkbeck, University of London

Category:Alumni of the University of East Anglia

Category:Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford

Category:English male novelists

Category:English male short story writers

Category:English short story writers

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature

Category:People educated at Bedford Modern School

Category:People from Ampthill

Category:People from Bedford