Rachel Cusk (born 8 February 1967)
is a British novelist and writer.
Childhood and education
Cusk was born in
Saskatoon
Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...
to
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
parents in 1967, the second of four children with an older sister and two younger brothers, and spent much of her early childhood in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
She moved to her parents' native Britain in 1974,
settling in
Bury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
,
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
.
She comes from a wealthy Catholic family, and was educated at
St Mary's Convent in Cambridge.
She studied English at
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...
.
Career
Cusk has written eleven novels, four works of non-fiction, and adapted ''
Medea
In Greek mythology, Medea (; grc, Μήδεια, ''Mēdeia'', perhaps implying "planner / schemer") is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. Medea figures in the myth of Jason an ...
'' for the London theatre
Almeida.
She published her first novel, ''Saving Agnes'' in 1993 which received the
Whitbread First Novel Award.
Its themes of femininity and social satire remained central to her work over the next decade. In responding to the formal problems of the novel representing female experience, she began to work in non-fiction. She has published two autobiographical accounts of motherhood and divorce: ''A Life's Work'' and ''Aftermath''.
Cusk has been a professor of creative writing at
Kingston University
, mottoeng = "Through Learning We Progress"
, established = – gained University Status – Kingston Technical Institute
, type = Public
, endowment = £2.3 m (2015)
, ...
.
Cusk's 2014 novel, ''
Outline
Outline or outlining may refer to:
* Outline (list), a document summary, in hierarchical list format
* Code folding, a method of hiding or collapsing code or text to see content in outline form
* Outline drawing, a sketch depicting the outer edge ...
'', was shortlisted for the
Folio Prize
The Rathbones Folio Prize, previously known as the Folio Prize and The Literature Prize, is a literary award that was sponsored by the London-based publisher The Folio Society for its first two years, 2014–2015. Starting in 2017 the sponsor is ...
, the
Goldsmiths Prize
The Goldsmiths Prize is a British literary award, founded in 2013 by Goldsmiths, University of London, in association with the ''New Statesman.'' It is awarded annually to a piece of fiction that "breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of ...
and the
Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction
The Women's Prize for Fiction (previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction (1996–2006 and 2009–12), Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007–08) and Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (2014–2017)) is one of the United Kingdom's m ...
. In 2003, Cusk was nominated by ''
Granta
''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...
'' magazine as one of 20 'Best of Young British Novelists'.
After a long period of consideration, Cusk began working in a new form that represented personal experience while avoiding the politics of subjectivity and literalism and remaining free from narrative convention. That project became a trilogy (''
Outline
Outline or outlining may refer to:
* Outline (list), a document summary, in hierarchical list format
* Code folding, a method of hiding or collapsing code or text to see content in outline form
* Outline drawing, a sketch depicting the outer edge ...
'', ''Transit'', and ''Kudos'').
Judith Thurman
Judith Thurman (b. 1946) is an American writer, biographer, and critic. She is the recipient of the 1983 National Book Award for nonfiction for her biography ''Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller''. Her book ''Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of ...
in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' wrote: "Many experimental writers have rejected the mechanics of storytelling, but Cusk has found a way to do so without sacrificing its tension."
The novel, giving fiction a radical "new design". ''Outline'' was one of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''s top 5 novels of 2015.
Reviewing ''Outline'' in ''The New York Times'',
Heidi Julavits
Heidi Suzanne Julavits (born April 20, 1969) is an American author and was a founding editor of '' The Believer'' magazine. She has been published in ''The Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 2'', ''Esquire'', ''Culture+Travel'', ''Story'', '' Zoetrope ...
wrote: "While the narrator is rarely alone, reading ''Outline'' mimics the sensation of being underwater, of being separated from other people by a substance denser than air. But there is nothing blurry or muted about Cusk's literary vision or her prose: Spend much time with this novel and you'll become convinced she is one of the smartest writers alive."
Reviewing her novel, ''Transit'', critic
Helen Dunmore
Helen Dunmore FRSL (12 December 1952 – 5 June 2017) was a British poet, novelist, and short story and children's writer.
Her best known works include the novels ''Zennor in Darkness'', '' A Spell of Winter'' and ''The Siege'', and her last ...
writing for ''
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 ...
'' commended Cusk's "brilliant, insightful prose", adding, "Cusk is now working on a level that makes it very surprising that she has not yet won a major literary prize".
In ''The New York Times'' review of ''Transit'',
Dwight Garner
Dwight Garner (born January 8, 1965) is an American journalist and longtime writer and editor for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, he was named a book critic for the newspaper. He is the author of ''Garner's Quotations: A Modern Miscellany'' and ...
said the novel offers "transcendental reflections", and that he was waiting more eagerly for ''Kudos'', the last novel of Rachel Cusk's trilogy, than for that of
Karl Ove Knausgaard Karl may refer to:
People
* Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne
* Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer
* Karl of Austria, last Austrian ...
's
''My Struggle'' series.
Reviews of ''Kudos,'' the last novel of Cusk's trilogy, were largely positive. Writing for ''The New Yorker'', Katy Waldman called it "a book ''about'' failure that is not, in itself, a failure. In fact, it is a breathtaking success."
Cusk’s novel ''Second Place'' was published in 2021. It is inspired by the memoirs of
Mabel Dodge Luhan
Mabel Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan (pronounced ''LOO-hahn''; née Ganson; February 26, 1879 – August 13, 1962) was a wealthy American patron of the arts, who was particularly associated with the Taos art colony.
Early life
Mabel Ganson was the heir ...
, who hosted
D.H. Lawrence
David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
at her property at the
Taos art colony
The Taos art colony was an art colony founded in Taos, New Mexico, by artists attracted by the culture of the Taos Pueblo and northern New Mexico. The history of Hispanic craftsmanship in furniture, tin work, and other mediums also played a rol ...
in New Mexico, in 1924. In this work, Cusk’s experimentation with the form of the novel continued. Andrew Schenker, writing in the
Los Angeles Review of Books
The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 2012. ...
, wrote: "If the ''Outline'' trilogy had seemed to push beyond the novel while still working within the form, then ''Second Place'' suggests that Cusk may have outgrown the genre entirely." ''Cleveland Review of Books'' reviewed the book, saying that "the narratorial absence is part of what compels one through the novels, for it acts like a filter, distilling all other people’s tales down to their most philosophically bare, their most ethically ambiguous, their most painfully isolated."
In 2015, The
Almeida theatre
The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325-seat producing house with an international reputation, which takes its name from the street on which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diver ...
commissioned and originally produced Cusk's adaption of ''
Medea
In Greek mythology, Medea (; grc, Μήδεια, ''Mēdeia'', perhaps implying "planner / schemer") is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. Medea figures in the myth of Jason an ...
'' as ''Medea - Euripides, A New Version''. In Cusk's adaptation, Medea does not murder her children.
Reviewing ''Medea'', the ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' commented: "Rachel Cusk is known as an unsparing writer in the territory of marital break-up".
Personal life
After a brief first marriage to a banker,
Cusk was married to photographer
Adrian Clarke, with whom she has two daughters. The couple separated in 2011. Their divorce became a major topic in Cusk's writings.
Cusk is married to retail consultant and artist Siemon Scamell-Katz. They live in London and
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
with Cusk's daughters.
In 2021, the couple announced plans to move to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, a protest in part against
the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.
Bibliography
Novels
*''Saving Agnes'' (1993)
*''The Temporary'' (1995)
*''
The Country Life
''The Country Life'' is a 1997 comedic novel by Rachel Cusk that draws on Stella Gibbons's ''Cold Comfort Farm'' and Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre''. It won a 1998 Somerset Maugham Award.
Description
The novel is a comedy that draws on both '' ...
'' (1997)
*''
The Lucky Ones'' (2003)
*''In the Fold'' (2005)
*''
Arlington Park
Arlington International Racecourse (formerly Arlington Park, the name was Arlington Park Jockey Club from as soon as 1948 up to 1955) was a horse race track in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois. Horse racing in the Chicago regi ...
'' (2006)
*''The Bradshaw Variations'' (2009)
*The Outline Trilogy
*#''
Outline
Outline or outlining may refer to:
* Outline (list), a document summary, in hierarchical list format
* Code folding, a method of hiding or collapsing code or text to see content in outline form
* Outline drawing, a sketch depicting the outer edge ...
'' (2014)
*#''Transit'' (2017)
*#''Kudos'' (2018)
*''
Second Place'' (2021)
;
Non-fiction
*''A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother'' (2001)
*''The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy'' (2009)
*''
Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation'' (2012)
*''Coventry: Essays'' (2019)
Theatre
*''Medea, Euripides - A new Version, 2015, Commissioned by and originally produced at the
Almeida theatre in London, UK.
;
Introductions and forewords
*''
Bonjour Tristesse'' by
Françoise Sagan
Françoise Sagan (born Françoise Delphine Quoirez; 21 June 1935 – 24 September 2004) was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Sagan was known for works with strong romantic themes involving wealthy and disillusioned bourgeois char ...
(Penguin, 2008)
*''
The Age of Innocence
''The Age of Innocence'' is a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It was her twelfth novel, and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine ''Pictorial Review''. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. Apple ...
'' by
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...
(Folio Society, 2009)
*''
The Rainbow
''The Rainbow'' is a novel by British author D. H. Lawrence, first published by Methuen & Co. in 1915. It follows three generations of the Brangwen family living in Nottinghamshire, focusing particularly on the individual's struggle to growth ...
'' by
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
(Vintage, 2011)
*''Complete Stories'' by
Kingsley Amis
Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social an ...
(Penguin Classics, 2011)
Awards and prizes
*1993
Whitbread First Novel Award - ''Saving Agnes''
*1997
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 Country Life''
*2003
Whitbread Novel Award
The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...
(shortlist) - ''The Lucky Ones''
*2005
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. ...
(longlist) – ''In the Fold''
*2007
Orange Prize for Fiction
The Women's Prize for Fiction (previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction (1996–2006 and 2009–12), Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007–08) and Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (2014–2017)) is one of the United Kingdom's m ...
(shortlist) - ''Arlington Park''
*2014
Goldmiths Prize (shortlist)
*2015
Folio Prize
The Rathbones Folio Prize, previously known as the Folio Prize and The Literature Prize, is a literary award that was sponsored by the London-based publisher The Folio Society for its first two years, 2014–2015. Starting in 2017 the sponsor is ...
(shortlist)
*2015 Bailey's Prize (shortlist)
*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 ...
(shortlist)
*2015 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction (shortlist)
*2016 Goldsmiths Prize (shortlist)
*2017
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 ...
(shortlist)
*2018 Goldsmiths Prize (shortlist)
*2021
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) - ''Second Place''
*2021
Governor General's Award for English-language fiction
The Governor General's Award for English-language fiction is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a fiction book written in English.[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 ...]
- ''Second Place''
Further reading
* "Suburban Worlds: Rachel Cusk and Jon McGregor." In B. Schoene. ''The Cosmopolitan Novel.'' Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
References
External links
* Elaine Blair i
''The New Yorker''on Rachel Cusk and ''Outline''
* https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/07/books/outline-rachel-cusks-new-novel.html
* http://www.sydneyreviewofbooks.com/outline-rachel-cusk/
* https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/01/the-uncoupling/508742/
* https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/aftermath-on-marriage-and-separation-by-rachel-cusk-xn0xgt0lsp9
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cusk, Rachel
1967 births
Living people
Alumni of New College, Oxford
English women novelists
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
20th-century English novelists
21st-century English novelists
Writers from Los Angeles
Writers from Saskatoon
Academics of Kingston University
20th-century English women writers
21st-century English women writers
Prix Femina Étranger winners