Alison Louise Kennedy (born 22 October 1965) is a Scots writer, academic and stand-up comedian. She writes novels, short stories and non-fiction, and is known for her dark tone and her blending of realism and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

. She contributes columns and reviews to European newspapers.

Biography

Kennedy was born in

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

to Edwardene Mildred, a teacher, and Robert Alan Kennedy, a psychology lecturer. Her parents divorced when she was 13. She attended the fee-paying

High School of Dundee The High School of Dundee is a private, co-educational, day school in Dundee, Scotland, which provides nursery, primary and secondary education to just over one thousand pupils. Its foundation has been dated to 1239, and it is the only private sc ...

and went on to study for a BA Hons in

Theatre Studies Theatre studies (sometimes referred to as theatrology or dramatics) is the study of theatrical performance in relation to its literary, physical, psychological, sociological, and historical contexts. It is an interdisciplinary field which also enco ...

and Dramatic Arts at the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...

. From 1987 to 1989, Kennedy was a community arts worker for Clydebank District Council. She then went on to a role as

writer-in-residence Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...

for

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

and

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; ), sometimes referred to as EK, is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland, and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. Historically a small village, it was designated Scotland's first "new town" on 6 Ma ...

Social Work Department from 1989 to 1991. Her work there won a special Social Work Today Award in 1990. From 1989 to 1995 she worked on Project Ability, a Glasgow-based visual arts organisation. In 1995 she was a part-time lecturer at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

. In 2009, she donated the short story ''Vanish'' to Oxfam's Ox-Tales project, four collections of stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the "Air" collection. In 2016, her novel ''Serious Sweet'' was long-listed for 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 ...

. In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, she signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

's leadership in the 2019 general election. The letter stated that "Labour's election manifesto under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership offers a transformative plan that prioritises the needs of people and the planet over private profit and the vested interests of a few." In 2020 she began contributing a column on her views of

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

to the German daily paper ''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of ''SZ'' is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and ...

''. Kennedy currently lives in the Scottish Highlands, having moved from

Wivenhoe Wivenhoe ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Colchester, Colchester district, in north-eastern Essex, England, approximately south-east of Colchester. Historically Wivenhoe village, on the banks of the Riv ...

and has been an associate professor in

Creative Writing Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character ...

at the

since 2007, having previously taught creative writing at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

from 2003 to 2007. She has performed as a stand-up comedian at the

Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

and literary festivals. Her main comedy club has been

The Stand Comedy Club The Stand Comedy Club is a chain of three stand-up comedy venues in the cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Newcastle upon Tyne. History The Stand hosted its first regular club night on Thursday, 21 September 1995, in the small basement of W.J. Ch ...

in Edinburgh. Her 2023 novel Als lebten wir in einem barmherzigen Land was First published in German Translation rather than the English origina

Awards and honours

*Scottish Arts Council Book Award four times *1993, 2003 Granta, Granta Best Young British Novelist *1991 Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year, ''Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains'' *1993

Edinburgh Fringe First The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

, ''The Audition'' *1994

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 ...

, ''Looking for the Possible Dance'' *1996

Encore Award The £15,000 Encore Award for the best second novel was first awarded in 1990. It is sponsored by Lucy Astor, presented by the Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King Ge ...

winner, ''So I Am Glad'' *2007 Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year, ''Day'' *2007 Lannan Literary Award for Fiction *2007 Austrian State Prize for European Literature winner *2007

Costa Book Awards The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in United Kingdom, UK and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first ...

Book of the Year, winner for ''

Day A day is the time rotation period, period of a full Earth's rotation, rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours (86,400 seconds). As a day passes at a given location it experiences morning, afternoon, evening, ...

'' *2008 Internationale Eifel-Literatur-Preis *2014

Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award __NOTOC__ The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award—named in honour of Frank O'Connor, who devoted much of his work to the form—was an international literary award presented for the best short story collection. It was presented betwe ...

shortlist ''All the Rage'' *2016

Heinrich Heine Prize Heinrich Heine Prize refers to three different awards named in honour of the 19th-century German poet Heinrich Heine, Christian Johann Heinrich Heine: * ''Heinrich Heine prize of Düsseldorf'' * ''Heinrich Heine prize of the Ministry for Culture'' ...

*2016 Ehrenpreis des Österreichischen Buchhandels für Toleranz in Denken und Handeln

Works

Novels

*''Looking for the Possible Dance'' (1993) *''So I Am Glad'' (1995) *''Everything You Need'' (1999) *''Paradise'' (2004) *''

'' (2007) *''The Blue Book'' (2011) *'' Doctor Who: The Drosten's Curse'' (2015) *''Serious Sweet'' (2016) *''The Little Snake'' (2018) *''Als lebten wir in einem barmherzigen Land'' (2023)

Short story collections

*''Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains'' (1990) *''Now That You're Back'' (1994) *''Tea and Biscuits'' (1996) *''Original Bliss'' (1997) *''Indelible Acts'' (2002) *''What Becomes'' (2009) *''All the Rage'' (2014) *''We Are Attempting to Survive Our Time'' (2020)

Non-fiction

*''Life & Death of Colonel Blimp'' (1997) *''On Bullfighting'' (1999) *''On Writing'' (2013)

Film and TV

Stella Does Tricks ''Stella Does Tricks'' is a 1996 British drama film about a young Glaswegian girl, played by Kelly Macdonald, working as a prostitute in London. The film was the first feature film directed by Coky Giedroyc, inspired by her previous work making ...

(1996) Channel 4 films "

Dice A die (: dice, sometimes also used as ) is a small, throwable object with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. Dice are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, ro ...

" (2001), with John Burnside

Selected radio

*''Confessions of a Medium'' (2010), broadcast as the ''

Saturday Play ''Saturday Drama'' (formerly ''The Saturday Play'') is a regular feature on BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broad ...

'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

, 13 March 2010 and 1 March 2013 *''Happy Families'' (2011), broadcast on BBC Radio 3, 1 September 2011 *''Love Love Love Like The Beatles'' (2012), broadcast as the '' Afternoon Drama'' on BBC Radio 4, 26 June 2012 *''AA: America's Gift to the World'' (2014), broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 6 April 2015
''Subterranean Homesick Blues''
(5 series beginning 2015), broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from 14 September 2015
''A Single Act''
(first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 25th Dec, 2023)

References

External links

* *
Profile
at ''The Guardian''
A. L. Kennedy reading at writLOUD in London
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, A. L. 1965 births 20th-century Scottish novelists 21st-century Scottish novelists 20th-century Scottish women writers 21st-century Scottish women writers Living people Academics of the University of St Andrews Academics of the University of Warwick Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners People from Dundee People educated at the High School of Dundee Scottish non-fiction writers Scottish women novelists 20th-century Scottish short story writers Scottish women short story writers 21st-century British short story writers Writers from Dundee Scottish republicans