Marina Lewycka ( ; born 12 October 1946) is a British novelist of Ukrainian origin.

Early life

Lewycka was born in a refugee camp in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Her family subsequently moved to England; she now lives in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

, South Yorkshire. She attended Gainsborough High School for Girls in

Gainsborough, Lincolnshire Gainsborough is a market town, inland port and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The town population was 20,842 at the 2011 census, and estimated at 23,243 in 2019. It lies on the east bank of the River Trent ...

, then Witney Grammar School in

Witney Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is west of Oxford. The place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest known record of it is as ...

, Oxfordshire. She graduated from

Keele University Keele University, officially known as the University of Keele, is a public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, Keele ...

in 1968 with a BA in English and Philosophy, and from the University of York with a BPhil in English Literature in 1969. She began, but did not complete, a PhD at King's College London.

Career

She was a lecturer in media studies at Sheffield Hallam University until her retirement in March 2012.

Works

Lewycka's debut novel ''

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian ''A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian'' is a humorous novel by Marina Lewycka, first published in 2005 by Viking (Penguin Books). The novel won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize at the Hay literary festival, the Waverton Good Read Awa ...

'' won the 2005

Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize is the United Kingdom's first literary award for comic literature. Established in 2000 and named in honour of P. G. Wodehouse, past winners include Paul Torday in 2007 with ''Salmon Fishing in the Yemen'' an ...

for comic writing at the

Hay literary festival The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival ( cy, Gŵyl Y Gelli), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, t ...

, the 2005/6

Waverton Good Read Award The Waverton Good Read Award was founded in 2003 by villagers in Waverton, Cheshire, Waverton, Chester, England, and is based on ''Le Prix de la Cadière d'Azur'', a literary prize awarded by a Provence, Provençal village. Adult debut novels writ ...

, and the 2005 Saga Award for Wit; it was long-listed for the 2005 Man Booker Prize and short-listed for the 2005 Orange Prize for Fiction. The novel has been translated into 35 languages. Her second novel '' Two Caravans'' was published in hardback in March 2007 by Fig Tree (an imprint of

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Orwell Prize The Orwell Prize, based at University College London, is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity (Registered Charity No 1161563, formerly "The Orwell Prize") governed by a boa ...

for political writing. In the United States and Canada it is published under the title '' Strawberry Fields''. Lewycka's third novel, '' We Are All Made of Glue'', was released in July 2009, and her fourth novel, ''Various Pets Alive and Dead'', came out in March 2012. 0Her fifth novel, published in 2016, was ''The Lubetkin Legacy'', named after

Berthold Lubetkin Berthold Romanovich Lubetkin (14 December 1901 – 23 October 1990) was a Georgian-British architect who pioneered modernist design in Britain in the 1930s. His work includes the Highpoint housing complex, the Penguin Pool at London Zoo, Fins ...

, the Georgian-born modernist architect, who built popular housing with the slogan: "Nothing is too good for ordinary people". ''The Lubetkin Legacy'' was shortlisted for the Bollinger Woodhouse Everyman for Comic Fiction prize. In 2009 Lewycka donated the short story "The Importance of Having Warm Feet" to Oxfam's ''

Ox-Tales Ox-Tales refers to four anthologies of short stories written by 38 of the UK's best-known authors. All donated their stories to Oxfam. The books and stories are loosely based on the four elements: Earth, Fire, Air and Water. The Ox-Tales books w ...

'' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the 'Earth' collection.Oxfam: Ox-Tales
Later the same year, she donated a second short story, "Business Philosophy", to the Amnesty International anthology ''Freedom: Short Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights''. In 2020, Lewycka released the novel ''The Good, the Bad and the Little Bit Stupid''. A review of the book in

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

noted that its commentary on

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

and

organ trafficking Organ trade (also known as Red market) is the trading of human organs, tissues, or other body products, usually for transplantation.(Carney, Scott. 2011. "The Red Market." Wired 19, no. 2: 112–1. Internet and Personal Computing Abstracts.) Acco ...

"seem not so much disparate as random". In addition to her fiction, Lewycka has written a number of books giving practical advice for carers of elderly people, published by the charity

Age Concern Age Concern is the banner title used by a number of charitable organizations ( NGOs) specifically concerned with the needs and interests of all older people (defined as those over the age of 50) based chiefly in the four countries of the United Kin ...

References

External links

* with complete bibliography, list of awards and critical perspective
In depth biographical article
at ''Derbyshire Life'' magazine website

Interview by Stephen Moss, ''The Guardian'', 31 May 2007. Retrieved on 31 May 2007
Three Monkeys InterviewDebut Novelist Takes Comic Prize
about her winning the Bollinger for ''A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian''
Review of ''A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian''
Guardian, 19 March 2005
Review of ''Two Caravans''
TimesOnLine, 25 March 2007
Interview in the ''Guardian''
15 July 2008
Marina Lewycka talks about ''We are all Made of Glue''
on The Interview Online {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewycka, Marina 1946 births Living people Academics of Sheffield Hallam University Alumni of Keele University Alumni of King's College London Alumni of the University of York 21st-century English novelists English people of Ukrainian descent People educated at Queen Elizabeth's High School Writers from Sheffield Ukrainian women writers Ukrainian emigrants to the United Kingdom 21st-century English women writers