Adam Samuel James Foulds
FRSL
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...
( ;
born 8 October 1974) is a British novelist and poet.
Biography
Foulds was educated at
Bancroft's School
Bancroft's School is a co-educational private day school in Woodford Green, London. The school has around 1,100 pupils aged between 7 and 18, around 250 of whom are pupils of the Preparatory School and 850 of whom are pupils of the Senior Sch ...
, read English at
St Catherine's College, Oxford
St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. In 1974, it was also one of the first men's colleges to admit women. It has 528 un ...
under
Craig Raine
Craig Anthony Raine, FRSL (born 3 December 1944) is an English contemporary poet. Along with Christopher Reid, he is a pioneer of Martian poetry, a movement that expresses alienation with the world, society and objects. He was a fellow of New C ...
, and graduated with an MA in creative writing from the
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...
in 2001.
In 2007, Foulds published his first book, ''The Truth About These Strange Times''. The novel, which is set in the present day, is concerned in part with the
World Memory Championships
The World Memory Championships is an organized competition of memory sports in which competitors memorize as much information as possible within a given period of time. The championship has taken place annually since 1991, with the exception of ...
.
In 2008, Foulds published a substantial narrative poem entitled ''The Broken Word'', described by the critic Peter Kemp as a "verse novella". It is a fictional version of some events during the
Mau Mau Uprising
The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising, Mau Mau revolt, or Kenya Emergency, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the Mau Mau, and the ...
. Writing 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 ...
'',
David Wheatley suggested that "The Broken Word is a moving and pitiless depiction of the world as it is rather than as we might like it to be, and the terrible things we do to defend our place in it".
In 2009, his novel ''
The Quickening Maze'' was published. Recommending the work in a 'books of the year' survey, novelist
Julian Barnes
Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with ''The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with ''Flaubert's Parrot'', ''England, England'', and ''Arthu ...
declared: 'Having last year greatly admired Adam Foulds's long poem "The Broken Word", I uncharitably wondered whether his novel ''The Quickening Maze'' (Cape) might allow me to tacitly advise him to stick to verse. Some hope: this story of the Victorian lunatic asylum where the poet
John Clare
John Clare (13 July 1793 – 20 May 1864) was an English poet. The son of a farm labourer, he became known for his celebrations of the English countryside and his sorrows at its disruption. His work underwent major re-evaluation in the late 20t ...
and
Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's ...
's brother Septimus were incarcerated is the real thing. It's not a "poetic novel" either, but a novelistic novel, rich in its understanding and representation of the mad, the sane, and that large overlapping category in between'.
On 7 January 2010, he was published on the Guardian's "Over by Over" (OBO) coverage of day five of the Third Test of the South Africa v England series at
Newlands, Cape Town
Newlands (Nuweland) is an upmarket suburb of Cape Town, South Africa.
It is located at the foot of Table Mountain in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, and is the wettest suburb in South Africa due to its high winter rainfall. The neighborhood ...
. Foulds's published email corrected the OBO writer, Andy Bull, who, in the 77th over, posted lines by Donne in reference to Ian Ronald Bell in verse form: "No doubt I won't be the first pedant to let you know that the Donne you quote is in fact from a prose meditation. The experiment in retrofitting twentieth century free verse technique to it is interesting but the line breaks shouldn't really be there."
In 2013 he was included in the Granta list of 20 best young writers.
He currently lives in
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
,
Ontario
Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, after marrying Canadian photographer Charla Jones.
"Adam Foulds explores the anxiety around status in our contemporary culture"
''Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division.
...
'', 26 April 2019.
Awards and honours
Selected bibliography
*2007: ''The Truth About These Strange Times''
*2008: ''The Broken Word''
*2009: ''The Quickening Maze''
*2014: ''In the Wolf's Mouth''
*2019: ''Dream Sequence''
See also
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foulds, Adam
1974 births
Living people
People educated at Bancroft's School
Alumni of St Catherine's College, Oxford
Alumni of the University of East Anglia
Costa Book Award winners
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
British writers