Anakana Schofield (born 1971) is an Irish-Canadian author, who won the 2012

Amazon.ca First Novel Award The Amazon.ca First Novel Award, formerly the Books in Canada First Novel Award, is a Canadian literary award, co-presented by Amazon.ca and ''The Walrus'' to the best first novel in English language, English published the previous year by a citize ...

Quill, Gregg
"Anakana Schofield's Malarky wins First Novel Award"
''

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'', April 24, 2013. and the Debut-Litzer Prize for Fiction in 2013 for her debut novel ''Malarky''. Born in England to an Irish mother, she lived in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Ireland until moving to

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

in 1999. The novel was also a shortlisted nominee for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. ''Martin John'', her second novel, was published in 2015. The novel was shortlisted for the 2015

Scotiabank Giller Prize The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition be ...

, the 2016 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, the 2016 Goldsmiths Prize, and the 2017 ReLit Award for fiction. Schofield has also been a literary critic, essayist and broadcaster, contributing to the '' London Review of Books Blog'', ''

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'',

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, ''

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'', ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'' and the ''

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''. Her third novel, ''Bina: A Novel in Warnings'', centred on Our Woman's best friend from her first book ''Malarky,''was published in 2019 in Canada and 2020 in UK. ''Bina'' was shortlisted for the 2020 Goldsmiths Prize. The jury described the novel as "Startlingly original and horribly funny, Anakana Schofield's Bina is that rare thing: a black comedy about euthanasia. Composed as a series of warnings scribbled on the backs of envelopes from the safety of her bed, the narrator is a septuagenarian who has had enough. And we can see why: her front garden is filled with political activists, her back garden with medical waste; her lodger stayed on for an extra ten years and she is suspected of murdering her best friend. In all her despair, and empathy for the despair of others, Bina emerges from her elliptical missives, addressed to everyone but no-one in particular, as an eccentric heroine of monumental moral courage." The novel will be published in February, 2021 in the US by the New York Review of Books.

Works

*''Malarky'' (2012, ) *''Rereading the Riot Act And On'' (2013, ) *''Martin John'' (2015, ) *''Bina: A Novel in Warnings'' (2019) ** excerpt: ''Bina''. Granta #141, autumn 2017, pp. 143–148

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schofield, Anakana Canadian women novelists Writers from Vancouver 1971 births Living people Irish emigrants to Canada 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian women writers Irish women novelists 21st-century Irish novelists 21st-century Irish women writers Amazon.ca First Novel Award winners