Janice Galloway (born 1955 in
Saltcoats, Scotland) is a Scottish
writer of novels, short stories, prose-poetry, non-fiction and libretti.
Biography
She is the second daughter of James Galloway and Janet Clark McBride. Her parents separated when she was four and her father died when she was six. Her sister Cora, sixteen years older, died in 2000 from smoking-related illness. Janice Galloway's secondary education was at
Ardrossan Academy, which is described in the memoir ''All Made Up.'' She studied Music and English at
Glasgow University
, image = UofG Coat of Arms.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
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, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
, ...
, then worked as a school teacher for ten years before turning to writing.
She was the first Scottish Arts Council writer in residence to four prisons (HMPs Cornton Vale, Dungavel, Barlinnie and Polmont YOI) and was 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 ...
'' Research Fellow to the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
in 1999. Her awards include: MIND/Allan Lane Award (for ''
The Trick is to Keep Breathing''), the McVitie's Prize (for ''Foreign Parts''), the E.M. Forster Award (presented by the American Academy of Arts and Letters), the Creative Scotland Award,
Saltire Book of the Year (for ''Clara'') and the
SMIT non-fiction Book of the Year for ''This is not about Me'' and Scottish Best Book of the Year 2012 for ''All Made Up''.
Janice Galloway lives in the Kingdom of Fife. She has one son, James.
She has written and presented three radio series for BBC Scotland (''Life as a Man'', ''Imagined Lives'' and ''Chopin's Scottish Swansong'') and works extensively with musicians and visual artists including Sally Beamish, Anne Bevan, Michael Wolchover, Norman McBeath, Alasdair Nicolson and James McNaught. Her books '' Clara'' and ''This is Not About Me'' were recorded for the RNIB Talking Books service by the author in 2004 and 2009 respectively. ''This is Not about Me'' and ''All Made Up'' are available to buy.
She collaborated with
Anne Bevan to create ''Rosengarten'', an exhibition at the
Hunterian Museum
The Hunterian is a complex of museums located in and operated by the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the oldest museum in Scotland. It covers the Hunterian Museum, the Hunterian Art Gallery, the Mackintosh House, the Zoology M ...
in Glasgow in 2004. Inspired by research into obstetric instruments and the mechanics of childbirth, it featured nine light tables with sculptural pieces in bronze, plaster and fabric by Bevan with poems and text by Galloway.
In December 2008 she was a guest on ''
Private Passions
''Private Passions'' is a weekly music discussion programme that has been running since 15 April 1995 on BBC Radio 3, presented by the composer Michael Berkeley. The production was formerly made by Classic Arts Productions, a British radio a ...
'', the biographical music discussion programme on
BBC Radio 3,
BBC Radio 3
/ref> and regularly discusses music, writing and ''The Scottish Question'' at public appearances.
Galloway wrote the glosses on Bronte's ''Shirley
Shirley may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Shirley'' (novel), an 1849 novel by Charlotte Brontë
* ''Shirley'' (1922 film), a British silent film
* ''Shirley'' (2020 film), an American film
* ''Shirley'' (album), a 1961 album by Shirley Bas ...
'' and Eliot's '' Felix Holt'' and ''Middlemarch
''Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life'' is a novel by the English author Mary Anne Evans, who wrote as George Eliot. It first appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midland town, ...
'' in ''The Book of Prefaces
''The Book of Prefaces'', is a 2000 book "edited and glossed" by the Scottish artist and novelist Alasdair Gray. It seeks to provide a history of how literature spread and developed through the nations of England, Ireland, Scotland, and the Uni ...
'', edited by Alasdair Gray
Alasdair James Gray (28 December 1934 – 29 December 2019) was a Scottish writer and artist. His first novel, ''Lanark: A Life in Four Books, Lanark'' (1981), is seen as a landmark of Scottish fiction. He published novels, short stories, plays ...
.
Works
Novels
*'' The Trick is to Keep Breathing'' (1989)
*''Foreign Parts'' (1994)
*''Clara'' (2002) (based on the life of Clara Schumann
Clara Josephine Schumann (; née Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, she exerted her influence over the course of a ...
)
Collections of short stories
*''Blood'' (1991)
*''Where You Find It'' (1996)
*"Collected Stories" (2009)
*"Jellyfish" (2019, Granta )
and has been widely anthologised in collections and translation since 1990.
Poetry
*''Boy Book See'' (2002)
Other texts
*''Chute'' (1998, French play/monologue commissioned by the Traverse Theatre)
*''Pipelines'' (2000, prose and poetry text to accompany Anne Bevan's exhibition "undercovered")
*''Monster'' (2002, opera libretto for Sally Beamish and Scottish Opera)
*''Rosengarten'' (2004, a book of prose and poetry, matched with an exhibition of obstetrical implements by Anne Bevan)
*''This is Not About Me'' (2008, "anti-memoir/ true novel" listed by publisher as ''memoir'')
*''All Made Up'' (2012, "anti-memoir/ true novel" listed by publisher as ''memoir'')
Further reading
* Hubbard, Tom (2009), "Writing Scottishly on Non-Scottish Matters", in Hubbard, Tom (2022), ''Invitation to the Voyage: Scotland, Europe and Literature'', Rymour, pp. 135 - 138,
*Bernard Sellin (coord.), ''Voices from Modern Scotland: Janice Galloway, Alasdair Gray'', CRINI (Centre de Recherche sur les Identités Nationales et l'Interculturalité), Nantes, 2007, 143 p., .
References
External links
*
* includes a "Critical Perspective" section
{{DEFAULTSORT:Galloway, Janice
1955 births
Living people
People educated at Ardrossan Academy
People from Saltcoats
Scottish women novelists
20th-century Scottish women writers
21st-century Scottish women writers
20th-century Scottish novelists
21st-century Scottish novelists
20th-century British short story writers
21st-century British short story writers