Deborah Levy
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Deborah Levy (born 6 August 1959) is a British novelist, playwright and poet. She initially concentrated on writing for the theatre – her plays were staged by the
Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...
– before focusing on prose fiction. Her early novels included ''Beautiful Mutants'', ''Swallowing Geography'' and ''Billy & Girl''. Her more recent fiction has included the Booker-shortlisted novels '' Swimming Home'' and ''
Hot Milk ''Hot Milk'' is a 2016 novel by British author Deborah Levy. It follows the story of mother, Rose, and daughter, Sofia, who embark on a journey to a Spanish clinic in search of a medical cure for Rose's paralysis. Plot Rose's paralysis confi ...
'', as well as the Booker-longlisted ''The Man Who Saw Everything'' and the short-story collection ''Black Vodka''.


Early life and education

Levy was born in
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
, South Africa, the granddaughter of working-class Lithuanian Jewish immigrants on her father's side, and an upper-middle-class "English colonial" family, as she described it, on her mother's side. Her father, Norman Levy, was a member of the
African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...
and an academic and historian. Her mother was Philippa (née Murrell). Her father was placed under a
banning order __NOTOC__ This list of people subject to banning orders under apartheid lists a selection of people subject to a "banning order" by the apartheid-era South African government. Banning was a Political repression, repressive and Extrajudicial punis ...
by the
Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
government from 1964 until the family fled to London in 1968, initially living in Wembley before moving to
Petts Wood Petts Wood is a town in south-east London, England, previously located in the historic county of Kent. It lies south of Chislehurst, west of St Paul's Cray and Poverest, north of Orpington and Crofton, and east of Southborough and Bromley ...
. Her parents divorced in 1974. She was educated at St Saviour’s and St Olave’s School, Southwark, and then at
Hampstead School Hampstead School is a large comprehensive school in the London Borough of Camden, England. The school building is one of the oldest in the borough. It has about 1,300 students between the ages of 11 and 19 attending the Lower School (Year 7 thr ...
. She then trained at
Dartington College of Arts Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts college located at Dartington Hall in the south-west of England, offering courses at degree and postgraduate level together with an arts research programme. It existed for a period of almost 50 ...
, which she was inspired to attend by
Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, gardener and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing Home ...
, whom she met while working as an usher at Notting Hill's Gate Cinema.


Work


Theatre

After leaving Dartington in 1981, Levy wrote a number of plays, including ''Pax'', ''Heresies'' for the
Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...
, and others (''Clam'', ''The B File'', ''Pushing the Prince into Denmark'', ''Macbeth – False Memories'', and ''Honey, Baby''), which are published in ''Levy: Plays 1'' (Methuen). She was director and writer for Man Act Theatre Company, a radical group that operated under the umbrella of Cardiff Laboratory Theatre, based at
Chapter Arts Centre Chapter Arts Centre (often just referred to as Chapter) is an arts centre in Canton, Cardiff, Wales, opened in 1971. Description Chapter hosts films, plays, performance art and live music, and includes a free art gallery, café and bars. There ...
.


Poetry

Levy's major work as a poet is ''An Amorous Discourse in the Suburbs of Hell'' (1990), which takes the form of a conversation between an angel and an accountant. It considers the struggle between, on the one hand, spontaneity and ambition, and, on the other, logic and contentment.


Fiction

Levy published a collection of short stories, ''Ophelia and the Great Idea'', in 1985. Her first novel, ''Beautiful Mutants'', was published in 1987 by
Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation ...
. Her second novel, ''Swallowing Geography'', was published in 1993, also by Cape, and her third, ''Billy and Girl'', was published in 1996 by Bloomsbury. Her short story "Proletarian Zen" was published in ''PEN New Fiction'' in 1985 by
PEN International PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...
and Quartet Books. '' Swimming Home'' (And Other Stories, 2011) was shortlisted for the
Man Booker Prize 2012 The 2012 Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded on 16 October 2012. A longlist of twelve titles was announced on 25 July, and these were narrowed down to a shortlist of six titles, announced on 11 September. The jury was chaired by Sir Peter Stotha ...
among other awards. Levy published a short story collection, ''Black Vodka'' (And Other Stories, 2013), which cemented her reputation as "one of the most exciting voices in contemporary British fiction." Her novel ''
Hot Milk ''Hot Milk'' is a 2016 novel by British author Deborah Levy. It follows the story of mother, Rose, and daughter, Sofia, who embark on a journey to a Spanish clinic in search of a medical cure for Rose's paralysis. Plot Rose's paralysis confi ...
'' was published in 2016 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2016."The 2016 Shortlist"
The Man Booker Prize.
One of Levy's short stories, "Stardust Nation", was adapted as a
graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
by Andrzej Klimowski, emeritus professor at the
Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...
, and published by
SelfMadeHero SelfMadeHero is an independent publishing house which specialises in adapting works of literature, as well as producing ground-breaking original fiction in the graphic novel medium. SelfMadeHero's books are distributed in the U.S. by Abrams Bo ...
in 2016. In 2019 her novel ''The Man Who Saw Everything'' was longlisted for the Booker Prize.


Autobiographies

Levy's first volume of autobiography, ''Things I Don't Want to Know'', was written in response to
George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...
's essay "
Why I Write "Why I Write" (1946) is an essay by George Orwell detailing his personal journey to becoming a writer. It was first published in the Summer 1946 edition of ''Gangrel''. The editors of this magazine, J.B.Pick and Charles Neil, had asked a selection ...
" and was published in 2013. In 2018, she published a second volume, ''The Cost of Living''. She has described them as "living" autobiographies, since they are "hopefully not being written at the end, with hindsight, but in the storm of life". The final volume, ''Real Estate'', was published in May 2021.


Style and themes

Writing in the ''
London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...
'' in 2016, Alice Spawls commented on several unconventional characteristics of Levy's writing: she "doesn't like stable narrators", has a "preference for shifting perspectives – she especially likes looking at one character through another", and "is interested in women who don’t have homes and aren't sure where to look for them" ("women who like to dissect things, who reassure themselves with cataloguing and calculating, as though people and feelings could be contained by indices"). Spawls noted that Levy's stories "almost always begin with a failure of language", explaining that Levy "has said that she's not interested in the most articulate person in the room, and that her work is informed by the theatre director Zofia Kalinska’s statement: 'We always hesitate when we wish for something. In my theatre, I like to show the hesitation and not to conceal it. A hesitation is not the same as a pause. It is an attempt to defeat the wish. Leo Robson, reviewing ''The Man Who Saw Everything'' in the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
'', provided this overview: "Levy’s project as a writer is itself about effacing borders – between the novel of ideas and the novel of sentiment, between the schematic and the fluent, the inevitable and the accidental, the cerebral and immersive, the sensuous (or somatic) and cerebral, the parochial and otherworldly, metaphor and literalism. If this sounds vague, it should." In her review of Levy's 2013 story collection ''Black Vodka'',
Lauren Elkin Lauren may be a given name or surname.The name's meaning may be "laurel tree", "sweet of honor", or "wisdom". It is derived from the French name Laurence, a feminine version of Laurent, which is in turn derived from the Roman surname Laurentius. ...
emphasized the philosophical qualities of Levy's work, writing that "Levy makes an aesthetic and ethics of 'elsewhereness'--being apart is another way of being together--and she explores the bonds we choose to create or break, and the ones we can't decide about. ..Levy sensitively conveys the phenomenology of textures, of skin and breath. Embedded in her coiled, polished sentences is the drive that pushes us together, and forces us apart."


Academic

Levy was a Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at
Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...
, from 1989 to 1991. From 2006 to 2009, she was AHRB Fellow in Creative and Performing Arts at the
Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...
. She was a visiting professor at Falmouth School of Art,
Falmouth University Falmouth University ( kw, Pennskol Aberfal) is a specialist public university for the creative industries based in Falmouth and Penryn, Cornwall, England. Founded as Falmouth School of Art in 1902, it was later known as Falmouth College of Ar ...
, from 2013 to 2015, and from 2018 to 2019 was a fellow of
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
's Institute for Ideas and Imagination.


Personal life

Levy married David Gale, a playwright, in 1997. The couple, who have two daughters, are now divorced.


Awards and honours

*2001:
Lannan Literary Fellowship The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional ...
, and 2004 Residency, Marfa *2012:
Specsavers National Book Awards The British Book Awards or Nibbies are literary awards for the best UK writers and their works, administered by ''The Bookseller''. The awards have had several previous names, owners and sponsors since being launched in 1990, including the National ...
, UK Author of the Year prize shortlist for ''Swimming Home'' *2012:
Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
shortlist for ''Swimming Home'' *2012: BBC International Short Story Award shortlist for "Black Vodka" *2013: Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize shortlist for ''Swimming Home'' *2013:
Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award __NOTOC__ The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award—named in honour of Frank O'Connor, who devoted much of his work to the form—was an international literary award presented for the best short story collection. It was presented bet ...
shortlist for ''Black Vodka'' *2016:
Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
shortlist for ''Hot Milk'' *2017:
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elec ...
*2019:
Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...
longlist for ''The Man Who Saw Everything'' *2020:
Prix Femina étranger The Prix Femina étranger is a French literary award established in 1985. It is awarded annually to a foreign-language literary work translated into French. List of laureates See also * Prix Femina * Prix Femina essai The prix Femina essai ...
for ''Things I Don't Want to Know'' and ''The Cost of Living'', translated into French by Céline Leroy. *''
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 ...
'' ranked ''The Cost of Living'' number 84 in its list of "The 100 best books of the 21st century".


Bibliography


References


External links


"An Interview with Deborah Levy"
''BookSlut'', May 2004

doollee {{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Deborah Living people 1959 births 20th-century British dramatists and playwrights 20th-century British novelists 20th-century British women writers 21st-century British dramatists and playwrights 21st-century British novelists 21st-century British women writers British people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent British women dramatists and playwrights British women novelists Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge People from Johannesburg People from Petts Wood Prix Femina Étranger winners South African people of English descent South African people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Weird fiction writers Writers from Wembley