Lynda Clark (born 29 October 1981) is an author and creator of

interactive fiction '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

. Her short story, “Ghillie’s Mum” won the

Commonwealth Short Story Prize The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000 to 5,000 words). The prize is open to citizens of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations aged 18 and over. The Commonwealth Short ...

for Europe and Canada in 2018, and was shortlisted for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

Short Story Award in 2019. Her debut novel, ''Beyond Kidding,'' was published by Fairlight Books in October 2019.

Biography

Born in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

, Clark completed a BA in English Literature, followed by an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing at

Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as a new university in 1992, although its roots go back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design, w ...

. She has worked as a bookseller at

Waterstones Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Wa ...

and in the video game industry as a writer and producer. Currently she is based in

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

where she works as a Research and Development Fellow in Narrative and Play at InGAME: Innovation for Games and Media Enterprise,

University of Dundee The University of Dundee; . Abbreviated as ''Dund.'' for post-nominals. is a public university, public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a University college#United Kingdom, university college in 1881 with a donation ...

. Clark has the rare neurological disorder,

Spasmodic Dysphonia Spasmodic dysphonia, also known as laryngeal dystonia, is a disorder in which the muscles that generate a person's voice go into periods of spasm. This results in breaks or interruptions in the voice, often every few sentences, which can make a pe ...

, an incurable condition which affects speech.

Awards and shortlistings

* 2017 The Cambridge Short Story Prize (shortlist) for ''Grandma’s Feast Day'' * 2018 Regional winner, Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Europe and Canada for ''Ghillie's Mum'' * 2019 BBC National Short Story Award (shortlist) for ''Ghillie's Mum'' * 2019

New Media Writing Prize The New Media Writing Prize is an annual, juried competition in the United Kingdom awarding prizes to works of innovative digital fiction that uses interactivity, participatory elements and/or multimedia and achieves "good storytelling". Works th ...

(shortlist) for ''The Memory Archivist'' * 2019 Winner, BL Labs Artistic Award for ''The Memory Archivist'' * 2020

Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society The Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is a British organisation that works to ensure that writers are fairly compensated for any of their works that are copied, broadcast or recorded. It has operated in the United Kingdom since 197 ...

(ALCS)

Tom-Gallon Trust Award The ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award is an annual award of £1,000 for a short story, financed by a bequest made by Nellie Tom-Gallon in memory of her brother, playwright and novelist Tom Gallon (1866–1914). The story should be traditional, not experi ...

(shortlist) for ''Ghillie's Mum''

Works

Novels

* ''Beyond Kidding'', 2019,

Short stories

* ''Dreaming in Quantum and Other Stories'', 2021,

Interactive fiction

* ''The Memory Archivist'', 2019

Non-fiction

* ''How I Ended the Wrestling Match Between My Brain and My Throat'', 2013, ''The Guardian'' * ''Why Final Fantasy 15’s beautiful food and ridiculous culinary preparation is the best thing in the game'', 2017, ''Games Radar & Official XBox Magazine'' * ''It's a Kind of Magic: The Tricks of Interactive Fiction'', ''The Birmingham Journal of Literature and Language'', VIII (2017), 55-65 * ''Before Westworld was Mudfog – Charles Dickens’ surprisingly modern dystopia'', 2018, ''The Conversation & Smithsonian Magazine''

References

External links

Lynda Clark's creator page on Itch.io
* Reviews :* Miki Lentin (14 September 2020)
"REVIEW OF LYNDA CLARK’S ‘BEYOND KIDDING ’ BY MIKI LENTIN"
''The Mechanics’ Institute Review (MIR).'' :*Miki Lentin (6 May 2021).
REVIEW: DREAMING IN QUANTUM BY LYNDA CLARK
. ''The Mechanics’ Institute Review (MIR).'' :*Stuart Kelly (1 June 2021).
Book reviews: Dreaming in Quantum and Other Stories by Lynda Clark , Man Hating Psycho by Iphgenia Baal
. ''The Scotsman''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Lynda 1981 births Living people Alumni of Nottingham Trent University 21st-century English women writers Electronic literature writers 21st-century English novelists Women in the video game industry