Alice Mary Felicity Winn (born 20 December 1992) is an Irish and American novelist and screenwriter, born in France and educated in England. She won the 2023 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize for her novel ''In Memoriam''.

Early life and education

Winn was born and raised in Paris, the daughter of Irish and American parents. She holds Irish citizenship. She has

dyslexia Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, wri ...

and did not learn to read until she was nine years old. Winn was educated at Marlborough College in England. She graduated with a degree in English literature from St Peter's College, Oxford. She has described having a "tenuous grasp" of her identity.

Career

After graduating, Winn set a goal of writing "a novel a year until I wrote one that was good." Before writing ''In Memoriam'', Winn wrote three unpublished novels, worked on screenplays, and taught homeschooled children. In 2019, Winn started writing ''In Memoriam'' after reading student newspapers published 1913–1919 from her alma mater, Marlborough College. The protagonists, Gaunt and Ellwood, were inspired by her readings of and about Robert Graves and

Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World ...

, respectively.

Personal life

Winn lives in Brooklyn. Her husband, Chris Turner, is a British comedian, and they have a daughter together.

Awards and honors

In 2023, Winn won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize for ''In Memoriam''. The book was also nominated for the 2023 Waterstones Book of the Year and won the Waterstones Novel of the Year. In October 2024 the German translation () won the Young Adult Jury Award of the German Youth Literature Awards at the

Frankfurt Book Fair The Frankfurt Book Fair (German: , FBM) is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. The five-day annual event in mid-October is held at the Frankfurt Trade Fair grounds in Frankfurt am ...

Publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winn, Alice Living people 1992 births 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers 21st-century Irish novelists 21st-century Irish women writers Alumni of St Peter's College, Oxford American women novelists French people of American descent French people of Irish descent Irish women novelists Novelists from Paris People educated at Marlborough College Writers with dyslexia