Alice Jolly (born 1966) is an English novelist, playwright and memoirist, who has won both the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

’s V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize for short stories (2014) and the

PEN/Ackerley Prize PEN Ackerley Prize (or, J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography) is awarded annually by English PEN for a literary autobiography of excellence, written by an author of British nationality and published during the preceding year. The winner receiv ...

for autobiography (2016). Her novel ''Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile'' was runner up for The Rathbones

Folio Prize The Rathbones Folio Prize, previously known as the Folio Prize and The Literature Prize, is a literary award that was sponsored by the London-based publisher The Folio Society for its first two years, 2014–2015. Starting in 2017 the sponsor is ...

in 2019 and was also longlisted for The

Ondaatje Prize The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someon ...

also in 2019. She was awarded an

O. Henry Award The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry. The ''PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' is an annual collection of the year's twenty best ...

in 2021. She reviews for

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...

The Literary Review ''The Literary Review'' is an American literary magazine founded in 1957. The biannual magazine is published internationally by Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey. In addition to the publication of short stories, poems, and ...

and

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

Biography

Jolly graduated from

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...

with a degree in Modern History in 1989. She teaches on the

Creative Writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary ...

M.St. course at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

.''Alice Jolly's crowdfunded memoir wins PEN Ackerley Prize''
The Bookseller (13 July 2016) In 2014, Jolly was awarded the Royal Society of Literature's V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize for her short story, ''Ray the Rottweiler''. In 2016, she was awarded the

for her memoir, ''Dead Babies and Seaside Towns'', the publication of which was

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

. Her novel ''Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile'' was runner up for The Rathbones

in 2019 and was also longlisted for The

also in 2019. She was awarded an

in 2021. She reviews for

and

. Jolly is married to a lawyer, Stephen Kinsella. They have two children, Thomas and Hope, and live in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

Published works

* ''What the Eye Doesn’t See'' (Simon & Schuster, 2003) * ''If Only You Knew'' (Simon & Schuster, 2006) * ''Dead Babies and Seaside Towns'' (Unbound, 2015) is a memoir of Jolly's journey of using a

surrogate A surrogate is a substitute or deputy for another person in a specific role and may refer to: Relationships * Surrogacy, an arrangement where a woman agrees to carry and give birth to a child for another person who will become its parent at bi ...

to carry her second child.Alt URL
/ref> * ''Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile'' (Unbound, 2018) * ''Between the Regions of Kindness'' (Unbound 2019) * ''A Saint in Swindon'' (Fairlight, 2020). Jolly has also written a number of plays for the

Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham Everyman Theatre is a theatre based in Regent Street, Cheltenham. There are two auditoria in the building - the 675 seat main auditorium and the 60 seat Studio Theatre, originally named The Ralph Richardson Studio after Ralph Richardson. History ...

and the

Cheltenham Literature Festival ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' Cheltenham Literature Festival, a large-scale international festival of literature held every year in October in the English spa town of Cheltenham, and part of Cheltenham Festivals: also responsible for t ...

References

External links

* Alice Jolly's persona
web-site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jolly, Alice 1966 births Living people 21st-century British short story writers 21st-century English memoirists 21st-century English novelists 21st-century English women writers English dramatists and playwrights Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford British women memoirists Academics of the University of Oxford The Times people The Guardian people