Sir 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 The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to ...

and 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, Un ...

. In 2004, he won the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

for his novel '' The Line of Beauty''. Hollinghurst is credited with having helped gay-themed fiction to break into the literary mainstream through his seven novels since 1988.

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. Sited below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

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

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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

Canford School Canford School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day 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 ...

. He studied English at

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

, 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 ...

writers: Ronald Firbank,

E. M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author. He is best known for his novels, particularly '' A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910) and '' A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous shor ...

and L. P. Hartley. He house-shared at Oxford with future poet laureate

Andrew Motion Sir Andrew Peter Motion (born 26 October 1952) is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. During the period of his laureateship, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and a ...

, and was awarded poetry's

Newdigate Prize Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize, more commonly the Newdigate Prize, is awarded by the University of Oxford for the Best Composition in English verse by an undergraduate student. It was founded in 1806 as a memorial to Sir Roger Newdigate (1719–1 ...

, 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 from 1985 to 1990. 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.

Writing

He won the 2004

for '' The Line of Beauty''. His next novel, ''

The Stranger's Child ''The Stranger's Child'' is the fifth novel by Alan Hollinghurst, first published in June 2011. The book tells the story of a minor poet, Cecil Valance, who is killed in the First World War. In 1913, he visits a Cambridge friend, George Sawle, ...

'', made the 2011 Booker Prize longlist. ''The Guardian'' has called Hollinghurst "one of the great writers of our time." The ''Sunday Times'' has stated "at the sentence level, Hollinghurst remains an English stylist without obvious living equal."

Personal life

Hollinghurst is

and lives in London. In 2018 he lived with the

non-binary Non-binary or genderqueer Gender identity, gender identities are those that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gende ...

writer Paul Mendez, though the two are now separated. 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 I suppose I had more energy then. Now I have to isolate myself for long periods."

Awards and honours

*1974:

*1989:

, for '' The Swimming-Pool Library'' *1989:

Stonewall Book Award The Stonewall Book Award is a set of three literary awards that annually recognize "exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience" in English-language books published in the U.S. They are sponsored by the Rainbo ...

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

, for '' The Folding Star'' *2004:

, for '' The Line of Beauty'' *2011:

, longlist for ''

'' *2011: Bill Whitehead Award 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 prog ...

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'' (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 Faber and Faber Limited, commonly known as Faber & Faber or simply Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, Margaret S ...

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

Novels

*'' The Swimming-Pool Library'', 1988 *'' The Folding Star'', 1994 *'' The Spell'', 1998 *'' The Line of Beauty'', 2004 *''

'', 2011 *'' The Sparsholt Affair'', 2017 *'' Our Evenings'', 2024

Translations

*''Bajazet'' by

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ; ; 22 December 1639 – 21 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 tr ...

Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his busines ...

, 1991 *''Bérénice'' and ''Bajazet'' by Jean Racine,

, 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 classics, classical scholar and poet. He showed early promise as a student at the University of Oxford, but he failed his final examination in ''literae humaniores'' and t ...

: poems selected by Alan Hollinghurst'',

, 2001

Foreword

*''Three Novels'' by Ronald Firbank, 2000

References

External links

* * 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 ...

''
Alan Hollinghust Profile
in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''
2011 radio interview
at ''The Bat Segundo Show'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hollinghurst, Alan 1954 births Living people Academics of University College London Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Booker Prize winners English gay writers English LGBTQ novelists English LGBTQ poets English male non-fiction writers English male novelists English male poets English male short story writers Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford 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 Writers from Gloucestershire 20th-century English short story writers 20th-century English translators 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English LGBTQ people 21st-century English novelists 21st-century English short story writers 21st-century English translators 21st-century English male writers 21st-century English LGBTQ people University of Houston faculty James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients Knights Bachelor