John Burnside

John Burnside in the Literary Salon Cologne, Stadtgarten (2016)

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John Burnside in the Literary Salon Cologne, Stadtgarten (2016)

John Burnside (born March 19, 1955 in Dunfermline , Fife , Scotland ) is a Scottish writer.

Life

John Burnside grew up in Cowdenbeath and moved to Corby when he was ten . He began as an unskilled industrial worker in a factory for the automotive supply industry. He studied English and European languages in Cambridge at what was then the College of Arts and Technology (today: Anglia Ruskin University ). He then worked in computer software development before becoming a freelance writer in 1996.

Burnside was Writer in Residence at the University of Dundee and is now (2015) Professor of Creative Writing at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He writes a column in The Guardian and in 2007 was one of the judges at the Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize , in 2011 he was a juror for the Manchester Fiction Prize .

In his first novel, House of the Mutes , he investigated Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar's experiment as to whether language is innate or learned. The novel Glister is a didactic piece about environmental degradation. In I put a spell on you he follows his father's generation of workers. In his autobiographical writings, he addresses the abnormal life in the suburbs from the point of view of his apophenia and his drug addiction, which he escaped with an addiction to writing.

Burnsides et al. a. Poetry influenced by TS Eliot testifies to encounters with the sounds, animals and plants of his environment. Their spatial design plays a role: hedges, fences, gardens, ditches, aisles in the forest, platforms, ports, beaches, transition zones at dusk. Yet there is no feeling of home ; the boundaries between inside and outside become blurred; many rooms remain empty.

Awards (selection)

• 2000: Whitbread Book Award for The Asylum Dance .
• 2000: Encore Award together with Claire Messud , Mat Thorne and Phil Whitaker.
• 2008: Cholmondeley Award
• 2011: Petrarca Prize together with Florjan Lipuš
• 2011: Corine International Literature Prize for lying about my father
• 2011: Forward Poetry Prize for the collection of poetry Black Cat Bone
• 2011: TS Eliot Prize (Great Britain) for poetry for Black Cat Bone
• 2012: Spycher: Leuk Literature Prize together with Judith Schalansky
• 2017: Radio play of the year for Coldhaven , translation. Composition and direction: Klaus Buhlert (SWR)
• 2018: Radio play award of the war blind for Coldhaven . Translation, composition and direction: Klaus Buhlert (SWR)

Works (selection)

Poems

• The Hoop , 1988 - honored with the Scottish Arts Council Book Award . Carcanet, Manchester, ISBN 0-85635-742-1 .
• Common Knowledge , 1991 - honored with the Scottish Arts Council Book Award .
• Feast Days , 1992 - Awarded the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize .
• The Asylum Dance , 2000.
• The Light Trap , Jonathan Cape, London 2002, ISBN 978-0-224-06177-3 e
  • Experiment about light by Iain Galbraith. Hanser Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-446-23496-3 .
• Black Cat Bone , Cape Poetry range. Jonathan Cape, London 2011, ISBN 978-0-224-09385-9 .
  • Instructions for a heavenly burial. Selected poems. English-German (from 1994–2016), translated by Ian Galbraith. Carl Hanser, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-446-25266-0 .
• In the Name of the Bee / In the Name of the Bee , dt. By Iain Galbraith. Golden Luft Verlag, Mainz 2018, ISBN 978-3-9818555-3-1 .

Novels and short stories

• The Myth of the Town , 1995.
• The Dumb House , 1997.
  • House of the Mutes , German by Bernhard Robben , Knaus Verlag, Munich 2014. ISBN 978-3-8135-0612-9 .
• The Mercy Boys , 1999 - honored with the Encore Award .
• Burning Elvis (short stories), 2000.
• The Locust Room , 2001.
• Living Nowhere . Jonathan Cape, London 2003.
• The Devil's Footprints , 2007.
  • The track of the devil , German by Bernhard Robben . Knaus Verlag, Munich 2008. ISBN 978-3-442-73997-4 .
• Glister , 2008.
  • Glister , German by Bernhard Robben . Knaus Verlag, Munich 2009. ISBN 978-3-442-74219-6 .
• A Summer of Drowning , 2011.
  • In bright summer nights , German by Bernhard Robben . Knaus Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-8135-0460-6 .
• Something like Happy , Jonathan Cape, London 2013, ISBN 978-0-224-09703-1 .
• All one breath . Jonathan Cape, London 2014, ISBN 978-0-224-09740-6 .
• Ashland & Vine . Jonathan Cape, London 2017.
  • Ashland & Vine . Translation Bernhard Robben . Knaus Verlag, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-8135-0461-3 .
• Havergey . Little Toller, 2017.

Radio plays

• The Baucan , composition and direction: Klaus Buhlert , SWR 2015.
• Coldhaven , composition and direction: Klaus Buhlert , SWR 2017. Radio play of the year
• Fügung , directed by Iris Drögekamp , SWR 2013.
• In bright summer nights , editing and direction: Barbara Meerkötter , NDR 2013.

Autobiography

• A Lie About My Father , 2006
  • Lies about my father. German by Bernhard Robben . Knaus Verlag, Munich 2011. ISBN 978-3-8135-0315-9 .
• Waking up in Toytown , 2010
  • Like all others , German by Bernhard Robben . Knaus Verlag, Munich 2016. ISBN 978-3-8135-0714-0 .
• I Put a Spell on You , 2014
  • About love and magic - I Put a Spell on You , German by Bernhard Robben . Penguin Verlag, Munich 2019. ISBN 978-3-328-60089-3 .

as editor

• with Alex Finlay: Love for Love, an Anthology of Love Poems , 2000.
• Wallace Stevens : Poems , selected by John Burnside, 2008.
• with Jo Lendle: Akzente 2/2018: order , 2018.
• Nature !: A hundred poems. Selected and with an essay by John Burnside , Penguin Verlag 2018, ISBN 978-3-328-60000-8 .

Web links

Commons : John Burnside  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about John Burnside in the catalog of the German National Library
• Profile John Burnside at the University of St Andrews (English)
• Short biography and reviews of works by John Burnside at perlentaucher.de
• Audio recording: John Burnside reads From In Bright Summer Nights and speaks to his translator Bernhard Robben on Lesungen.net
• Animistic echoes. Land is not a commodity, but a sanctuary. Notes on the re-sacralization of Europe Speech by John Burnside, German translation published in Oya 51/2018.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Christian Mayer: whipping boy. Interview, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung], October 18, 2014, p. 20.
2. ↑ Gregor Dotzauer: The devil is in a leftover instant noodle. In: The time of August 24, 2016.
3. ↑ Press release according to book report from May 21, 2012