John Burnside (19 March 1955 – 29 May 2024) was a Scottish writer. He was one of four poets (with

Ted Hughes Edward James Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He wa ...

, Sean O'Brien and

Jason Allen-Paisant Jason Allen-Paisant (born 1980) is a Jamaican poet, writer and academic, based in the UK. His second collection of poems, ''Self-Portrait as Othello'', won the 2023 T. S. Eliot Prize and the 2023 Forward Prize for Best Collection. Biography ...

) to have won the T. S. Eliot Prize and the

Forward Poetry Prize The Forward Prizes for Poetry are major British awards for poetry, presented annually at a public ceremony in London. They were founded in 1992 by William Sieghart with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing its audience. The ...

for a single book – in this case, for '' Black Cat Bone'' in 2011. In 2023, he won the

David Cohen Prize The David Cohen Prize for Literature (est. 1993) is a British literary award given to a writer, novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist or dramatist in recognition of an entire body of work, written in the English language. The prize is funde ...

in recognition of his full body of work.

Life and works

Burnside was born in

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries. The earliest ...

, Scotland, and raised in

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath () is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 1890. According to a 20 ...

and

Corby Corby is a town and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, northeast of Northampton. In 2021 it had a population of 68,164. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

. He studied English and European Thought and Literature at

Cambridge College of Arts and Technology Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public research university in the region of East Anglia, United Kingdom. Its origins date back to the Cambridge School of Art (CSA), founded by William John Beamont, a Fellow of Trinity College at the Univer ...

. A former computer software engineer, he was a freelance writer after 1996. He was a former Writer in Residence at the

University of Dundee The University of Dundee is a public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a university college in 1881 with a donation from the prominent Baxter family of textile manufacturers. The institution was, for most of its ...

and was Professor in 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 ...

, where he taught creative writing, literature and ecology and American poetry. His first collection of poetry, ''The Hoop'', was published in 1988 and won a

Scottish Arts Council The Scottish Arts Council (), was a Scottish public body responsible for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland. The Council primarily distributed funding from the Scottish Government as well as National Lottery funds ...

Book Award. Other poetry collections by Burnside include ''Common Knowledge'' (1991), ''Feast Days'' (1992), winner of the

Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize is a British literary prize established in 1963 in tribute to Geoffrey Faber, founder and first Chairman of the publisher Faber & Faber. It recognises a single volume of poetry or fiction by a United Kingdom, Iri ...

, and ''The Asylum Dance'' (2000), winner of the Whitbread Poetry Award and shortlisted for both the

(Best Poetry Collection of the Year) and the T. S. Eliot Prize. ''The Light Trap'' (2001) was also shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize. Burnside was also the author of two collections of short stories, ''Burning Elvis'' (2000), and ''Something Like Happy '' (2013), as well as several novels, including ''The Dumb House'' (1997), ''The Devil's Footprints'', (2007), ''Glister'', (2009) and ''A Summer of Drowning'', (2011). His multi-award winning memoir, ''A Lie About My Father'', was published in 2006 and its successor, ''Waking Up In Toytown'', in 2010. ''A Lie About My Father'' earned him the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year in 2006, alongside the Sundial Scottish Arts Council Non-fiction Book of the Year and the CORINE International Literature Prize. In 2008 he won the

Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards ( ) are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has bee ...

. A further memoir, ''I Put A Spell On You'', combined personal history with reflections on romantic love, magic and popular music. His short stories and feature essays have appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', ''

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 ...

'' and ''

The London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Boo ...

'', among others. He also wrote an occasional nature column for the ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

''. In 2011 he received the Petrarca-Preis, a major German international literary prize. Burnside's work was inspired by his engagement with nature, environment and

deep ecology Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy that promotes the inherent worth of all living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, and argues that modern human societies should be restructured in accordance with such idea ...

. His collection of short stories, ''Something Like Happy'', was published in 2013. Burnside was a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

(elected in 1999) and in March 2016 was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

, Scotland's National Academy for science and letters. He also lectured annually and oversaw the judging of the writing prize at the Alpine Fellowship. Burnside died after a short illness on 29 May 2024, at the age of 69.

Awards

* 1988: Scottish Arts Council Book Award, for ''The Hoop'' * 1991: Scottish Arts Council Book Award, for ''Common Knowledge'' * 1994:

, for ''Feast Days'' * 1999:

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 ...

for ''The Mercy Boys'' * 2000:

(Best Collection – shortlist), for ''The Asylum Dance'' * 2000: T. S. Eliot Prize (shortlist), for ''The Asylum Dance'' * 2000: Whitbread Book Award, Poetry Award, for ''The Asylum Dance'' * 2002:

Saltire Society The Saltire Society is a membership organisation which aims to promote the understanding of the culture and heritage of Scotland, founded in 1936. The society organises lectures and publishes pamphlets, and presents a series of awards in the fiel ...

Scottish Book of the Year Award (shortlist), for ''The Light Trap'' * 2002: T. S. Eliot Prize (shortlist), for ''The Light Trap'' * 2005:

(Best Collection – shortlist), for ''The Good Neighbour'' * 2006: Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award for ''A Lie About My Father'' * 2008:

* 2011: Petrarca-Preis * 2011:

Forward Prize The Forward Prizes for Poetry are major British awards for poetry, presented annually at a public ceremony in London. They were founded in 1992 by William Sieghart with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing its audience. The ...

for '' Black Cat Bone'' * 2011: T. S. Eliot Prize for ''Black Cat Bone'' * 2011: Corine Literature Prize for ''A Lie About My Father'' * 2011: Costa Book AwardsNovel, shortlist, ''A Summer of Drowning'' * 2011: PEN/Ackerley Prize (shortlist) for ''Waking Up in Toytown'' * 2012: Spycher: Literaturpreis Leuk with Judith Schalansky * 2013: Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award for ''Something Like Happy'' * 2017: Hörspiel des Jahres für Coldhaven, translation. composition and directing: Klaus Buhlert (SWR) * 2018: Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden für Coldhaven. translation. composition and directing: Klaus Buhlert (SWR) * 2022: Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets for ''Apostasy'' * 2023:

Bibliography

Poetry collections

* ''The Hoop'' (Carcanet, 1988) * ''Common Knowledge'' (Secker and Warburg, London, 1991) * ''Feast Days'' (Secker and Warburg, London, 1992) * ''The Myth of the Twin'' (Jonathan Cape, London, 1994) * ''Swimming in the Flood'' (Jonathan Cape, London, 1995) * ''Penguin Modern Poets'' (Penguin, 1996) * ''A Normal Skin'' (Jonathan Cape, London, 1997) * ''The Asylum Dance'' (Jonathan Cape, London, 2000) * ''The Light Trap'' (Jonathan Cape, London, 2002) * '' A Poet's Polemic'' (2003) * ''The Good Neighbour'' (Jonathan Cape, 2005) * ''Selected Poems'' (Jonathan Cape, 2006) * ''Gift Songs'' (Jonathan Cape, 2007) * ''The Hunt in the Forest'' (Jonathan Cape, 2009) * '' Black Cat Bone'' (Jonathan Cape, 2011) * ''All One Breath'' (Jonathan Cape, 2014) * ''Still Life with Feeding Snake'' (Jonathan Cape, 2017) * ''In the Name of the Bee/Im Namen der Biene'' (Golden Luft, Mainz 2018) * ''Learning to Sleep'' (Jonathan Cape, 2021) * ''Apostasy'' (Dare-Gale Press, 2022) * ''Apostasy/Apostasie'' (Golden Luft, Mainz 2023) * ''Ruin, Blossom'' (Vintage Publishing, Jonathan Cape, 2024)

Fiction

* ''The Dumb House'' (Jonathan Cape, London, 1997) * ''The Mercy Boys'' (Jonathan Cape, London, 1999) * ''Burning Elvis'' (Jonathan Cape, London, 2000) * ''The Locust Room'' (Jonathan Cape, London, 2001) * ''Living Nowhere'' (Jonathan Cape, London, 2003) * ''The Devil's Footprints'' (Jonathan Cape, 2007) * ''Glister'' (Jonathan Cape, 2008) * ''A Summer of Drowning'' (Jonathan Cape, 2011) * ''Something Like Happy'' (Jonathan Cape, 2013) * ''Ashland & Vine'' (Jonathan Cape, 2017) * ''Havergey'' (Little Toller, 2017)

Non-fiction

* ''Wild Reckoning'' (Gulbenkian, 2004), joint editor with Maurice Riordan of this anthology of ecology-related poems * ''A Lie About My Father'' (biography, 2006) * ''Wallace Stevens : poems / selected by John Burnside'' (Poet to Poet Series, Faber and Faber, 2008) * ''Waking up in Toytown'' (biography, Jonathan Cape, 2010) * ''I Put a Spell on You'' (biography, Jonathan Cape, 2014) * * ''The Music of Time: Poetry in the Twentieth Century'' (literary criticism, 2019) * ''Aurochs and Auks: Essays on mortality and extinction'' (Little Toller Books, 2021)

Screen

* ''

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 ...

'' (with A. L. Kennedy), a series for television, produced by Cité-Amérique, Canada

Critical studies

* ''John Burnside: Contemporary Critical Perspectives'' (London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2020). * "Dwelling Places: An Appreciation of John Burnside", special edition of ''

Agenda Agenda (: agendum) may refer to: Information management * Agenda (meeting), points to be discussed and acted upon, displayed as a list * Political agenda, the set of goals of an ideological group * Lotus Agenda, a DOS-based personal informatio ...

'' magazine, Vol. 45, No 4/Vol. 46, No 1, Spring/Summer 2011

References

External links

Profiles

* * *
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British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

Profile
at the

Poetry Archive The Poetry Archive is a free, web-based library formed to hold recordings of English language poets reading their own work. The Archive holds over 20000 poems and keeps the recordings safe and accessible so that current and future visitors can ...

Profile
at

Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is a United States literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthrop ...

Profile
at the Scottish Poetry Library, with recordings of him reading his poems and links to poem texts

Magazines and publishers

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London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Book ...

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Penguin UK Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, 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 ...

Poems and essays

"Walk the tightrope"
– a short essay in November 2011 issue of the ''

New Humanist ''New Humanist'' is a quarterly magazine, published by Humanists UK and based in London, that focuses on culture, news, philosophy, and science from a sceptical perspective. History ''New Humanist'' has been in print for years, starting out ...

''
Archive of Article
in the Spring 2007 issue of ''Tate etc.'' magazine
Scottish Arts Council September 2004 Poem of the Month
: " homage to

Kåre Kivijärvi Kåre Kivijärvi (born 23 April 1938 in Hammerfest - 20 November 1991) was a Norwegian photographer known for his photojournalistic work in Northern Norway. Kivijärvi was born into a Kven family and always professed a connection to his ethnic he ...

" {{DEFAULTSORT:Burnside, John 1955 births 2024 deaths 20th-century Scottish male writers 20th-century Scottish poets 21st-century British male writers 21st-century Scottish poets Academics of the University of St Andrews Alumni of Anglia Ruskin University British columnists Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature People associated with the University of Dundee People from Corby People from Cowdenbeath Scottish male poets T. S. Eliot Prize winners Writers of Gothic fiction