Fiona Mozley

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Fiona Mozley (* 1988 in Hackney , England ) is a British writer.

Life

Origin and education

Fiona Mozley grew up in the city of York , where she attended the Fulford School . She has an older sister and described herself as a poor student when she was young. She studied at King's College of Cambridge University , before they spend a year in Buenos Aires moved. After that, Mozley worked briefly as a trainee at the literature agency Artellus Ltd. worked in London before moving to York to complete her PhD in Medieval Studies .

Successful debut novel

In 2017 Mozley published Elmet, her debut novel, which she titled after the independent Celtic kingdom of the same name from the 5th to 7th centuries and dedicated to her life partner. The story takes place in the present in the secluded nature of Yorkshire and is about a father and his two children who live on the edge of society. The family built their own house in the forest. The children do not go to school while the father earns a living as a bare knuckle boxer by taking part in fights. When the rightful landowner discovers the three of them on his property, the family's idyllic life changes forever. The story is told from the son's perspective.

Mozley claims to have been inspired to see Elmet on a morning train ride from York to London in 2013 when she was returning to work from a weekend visit to her family. As the South Yorkshire countryside passed the train window, she began to write the first chapter on her cell phone. Mozley later missed her home and moved back to Yorkshire, where she finished the novel without telling family or friends. “I found life in London difficult [...] I was living for the next paycheck and didn't know what to do with myself. I didn't know what career I would have or where I would live next year, ”said Mozley, who had secretly rented a flat in London for £ 600 and had to hide her bed when visiting her landlord. For Elmet she let herself be influenced literarily and cinematically by the Western genre and the local dialect of her homeland. She also inspired the parallel work on her doctoral thesis: “My dissertation looks at the relationship between medieval cities and the natural environment. Therefore, over the past few years, I've given a certain amount of thought to issues related to community, land, and property. These themes and concerns have certainly flowed into Elmet , and while this is a contemporary novel, it is deeply rooted in the long history of the landscape I grew up in, which is fed by medieval myths and legends, ”said Mozley.

Elmet was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2017 , making the 29-year-old known to an international audience. After the New Zealander Eleanor Catton, she is the second youngest author in the history of the prestigious British literary award to reach the final. Critics praised Mozley's first work, described the story as " Hansel and Gretel meets the godfather " ( The Sunday Times ) and compared it to the novel The Strait of Cormac McCarthy . In 2018 Mozley received a Somerset Maugham Award and the Polari First Book Prize for Elmet .

Private life and other literary projects

Fiona Mozley lives with her partner and a dog. She works part-time in a book store in York. She is currently working on another novel that deals with issues similar to Elmet (“Possession, Property Law, Gentrification ”) but is set in a different location and is intended to reflect the perspective of several characters.

Works

Novels

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lea, Richard: "'I Already Feel like I've Won': Fiona Mozley, the New Face on the Booker Longlist" . The Guardian, August 17, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Alex Ross: "Former Fulford School pupil on Man Booker prize shortlist" , York Press , accessed October 12, 2017.
  3. ^ Fiona Mozley: "I'm on the Man Booker Shortlist and Top of My Fantasy Football League" . The Guardian, September 30, 2017.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Lizzie Edmonds: “Man Booker Prize shortlist 2017: Londoner who wrote debut novel on her phone competes against five other authors | London Evening Standard ” , accessed October 12, 2017.
  5. ^ A b c Susannah Butter: "I wrote a novel on my commute - now it might win the Booker Prize" . Evening Standard, July 28, 2017.
  6. ↑ a b "Fiona Mozley interview | The Man Booker Prizes ” . accessed on October 12, 2017.
  7. ↑ Elmet . In: Metro , August 21, 2017, p. 24.
  8. ↑ Mozley wins Polari First Book Prize , thebookseller.com, October 20, 2018, accessed October 22, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Mozley, Fiona
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer
DATE OF BIRTH 1988
PLACE OF BIRTH Hackney , England