Alan James Hollinghurst (born 26 May 1954) is an English novelist, poet, short story writer and translator. He won the 1989

Somerset Maugham Award The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each year by the Society of Authors. Set up by William Somerset Maugham in 1947 the awards enable young writers to enrich their work by gaining experience in foreign countries. The awa ...

, the 1994

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Uni ...

and the 2004 Booker Prize.

Early life and education

Hollinghurst was born in

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...

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 ...

, only child of bank manager James Hollinghurst, who served in the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and his wife, Elizabeth. He attended Dorset's

Canford School Canford School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18). Situated in 300 acres of parkland near to the market town of Wimborne Minster in Dorset, south west England, it is one of the largest s ...

. He studied English at

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

, receiving a BA in 1975 and MLitt in 1979. His thesis was on works by three

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

writers:

Firbank Firbank is a village and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of the English county of Cumbria. It has a population of 97.Forster and Hartley. He house-shared with future poet laureate Andrew Motion at Oxford, and was awarded poetry's Newdigate Prize, a year before Motion. In the late 1970s he lectured at Magdalen, then at Somerville and Corpus Christi. In 1981 he lectured at UCL, and in 1982 joined ''

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 ...

'', serving as deputy editor: 1985–90.

Writing

Hollinghurst discussed his early life and literary influences at length in a rare interview at home in London, published in ''The James White Review'' in 1997–98. He won the 2004 Booker Prize for ''

The Line of Beauty ''The Line of Beauty'' is a 2004 Man Booker Prize-winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst. Plot The novel is set in Britain in three parts, taking place in 1983, 1986 and 1987. The story surrounds the young gay protagonist, Nick Guest. Nick is mid ...

''. His next novel, '' The Stranger's Child'', made the 2011 Booker Prize longlist.

List of works

Poetry

*''Isherwood is at Santa Monica'' (Sycamore Broadsheet 22: two poems, hand-printed on a single folded sheet), Oxford: Sycamore Press 1975 *''

Poetry Introduction 4 Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

'' (ten poems: "Over the Wall", "Nightfall", "Survey", "Christmas Day at Home", "The Drowned Field", "Alonso", "Isherwood is at Santa Monica", "Ben Dancing at Wayland's Smithy", "Convalescence in Lower Largo", "The Well"), Faber and Faber, 1978 *''Confidential Chats with Boys'', Oxford: Sycamore Press 1982 (based on the book ''Confidential Chats with Boys'' by William Lee Howard, MD., 1911, Sydney, Australia) *"Mud" (''London Review of Books'', Vol. 4, No. 19, 21 October 1982)

Short stories

*''A Thieving Boy'' (''Firebird'' 2: Writing Today, Penguin, 1983) *''Sharps and Flats'' (''Granta'' 43, 1993), was incorporated into Hollinghurst's second novel, ''

The Folding Star ''The Folding Star'' is a 1994 novel by Alan Hollinghurst. Plot summary The novel is the story of a gay English man, Edward Manners, who, disaffected with life, moves to a town in Flanders where he teaches two students English. One, Marcel, is p ...

'' *''Highlights'' (''Granta'' 100, 2007)

Novels

*'' The Swimming-Pool Library'', 1988 *''

'', 1994 *'' The Spell'', 1998 *''

'', 2004 *'' The Stranger's Child'', 2011 *''

The Sparsholt Affair ''The Sparsholt Affair'' is the sixth novel written by British author Alan Hollinghurst. The novel explores the changing attitudes towards homosexuality in England through the lives of two men: David Sparsholt, a teenager briefly attending Ox ...

'', 2017

Translations

*''Bajazet'' by

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditio ...

, Chatto & Windus, 1991 *''Bérénice and Bajazet'' by Jean Racine, Faber and Faber, 2012

As editor

*''New Writing 4'' (with A. S. Byatt), 1995 *''

A. E. Housman Alfred Edward Housman (; 26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936) was an English classical scholar and poet. After an initially poor performance while at university, he took employment as a clerk in London and established his academic reputation by pub ...

: poems selected by Alan Hollinghurst'', Faber and Faber, 2001

Foreword

*''Three Novels'' by

Ronald Firbank Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank (17 January 1886 – 21 May 1926) was an innovative English novelist. His eight short novels, partly inspired by the London aesthetes of the 1890s, especially Oscar Wilde, consist largely of dialogue, with referen ...

, 2000

Awards and honours

*1974: Newdigate Prize *1989:

, for '' The Swimming Pool Library'' *1994:

, for ''

'' *2004: Booker Prize, for ''

'' *2011: Booker Prize, longlist for '' The Stranger's Child'' *2011:

Bill Whitehead Award The Bill Whitehead Award is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle to honour lifetime achievement by writers within the LGBT community. First presented in 1989, the award was named in honour of Bill Whitehead, an editor with ...

for Lifetime Achievement from

Publishing Triangle The Publishing Triangle, founded in 1988 by Robin Hardy, is an American association of gay men and lesbians in the publishing industry. They sponsor an annual National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, and have sponsored the annual Triangle Awards pro ...

Personal life

Hollinghurst is

and lives in London. Although he now lives with his partner Paul Mendez, Hollinghurst previously said: "I'm not at all easy to live with. I wish I could integrate writing into ordinary social life, but I don't seem to be able to. I could when I started

riting Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

I suppose I had more energy then. Now I have to isolate myself for long periods."

References

External links

An Interview at the ''Oxonian Review''
* includes a "Critical Perspective" section
Alan Hollinghurst
at ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

''
Alan Hollinghust Profile
in ''

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 ...

''
2011 radio interview
at ''

The Bat Segundo Show ''The Bat Segundo Show'' was a podcast based in New York City run by writer and literary critic Edward Champion between 2004 and 2012. It was revived in mid-2013. The program features comprehensive interviews with prominent figures in arts and ...

'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hollinghurst, Alan 1954 births Living people Academics of University College London Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Booker Prize winners English gay writers English LGBT novelists English LGBT poets English male non-fiction writers English male novelists English male poets English male short story writers English translators Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction winners Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction winners People educated at Canford School People from Stroud Stonewall Book Award winners 20th-century British short story writers 20th-century British translators 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English novelists 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century British novelists 21st-century British short story writers 21st-century British translators 21st-century English male writers 21st-century LGBT people University of Houston faculty