Jim Crace (born March 1, 1946 in Hertfordshire, England) is a contemporary English writer. The winner of numerous awards, Crace also has a large popular following. He currently lives in Birmingham with his wife and two children.

Biography

After securing a BA (Hons) in English Liturature from the London University in 1968, Crace traveled overseas with the UK organization Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), working in Sudan. Two years later he returned to the UK, and worked with the BBC, writing educational programmes. From 1976 to 1987 he worked as a freelance journalist for The Telegraph and other newspapers.

In 1974 he published his first work of prose fiction, Annie, California Plates in The New Review , and in the next 10 years would write a number of short stories and radio plays, including:

• Helter Skelter, Hang Sorrow, Care’ll Kill a Cat , The New Review (December, 1975). Reprinted in Cosmopolitan and included in , Faber and Faber (1977).
• Refugees , winner of the Socialist Challenge short story competition (judges: John Fowles, Fay Weldon, Terry Eagleton), Socialist Challenge (1977).
• Seven Ages , Quarto (June, 1980), broadcast as Middling by BBC Radio 3.
• The Bird Has Flown , radio play, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 28 October 1976.
• A Coat of Many Colours , radio play, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 26 March 1979.

In 1986 Crace published Continent . Continent won the Whitbread First Novel of the Year Award, the David Higham Prize for Fiction, and the Guardian Fiction prize. This work was followed by The Gift of Stones , Arcadia , Signals of Distress , Quarantine , Being Dead and Six . He is currently working on a new book, with the working title The Pest House .

Bibliography

• Six (2003)
• The Devil's Larder (2001)
• Being Dead (1999)
• Quarantine (1997)
• The Slow Digestions of the Night (1995)
• Signals of Distress (1994)
• Arcadia (1992)
• The Gift of Stones (1988)
• Continent (1986)

Awards

Booker Prize for Fiction

• 1999 Being Dead (shortlist)
• 1997 Quarantine (shortlist)

International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

• 1999 Being Dead (shortlist)

National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award (USA)

• 1999 Being Dead

Whitbread Book Awards

• 1997 Being Dead (Novel)
• 1986 Continent (First Novel)

Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize

• 1995 Signals of Distress

American Academy of Arts and Letters

• 1992 E. M. Forester Award

GAP International Prize for Literature (USA)

• 1989 The Gift of Stones

Premio Antico Fattore

• 1988

Guardian Fiction Prize

• 1986 Continent

David Higham Prize for Fiction

• 1986 Continent

External Links

• Jim-Crace.com - Original souce for biography. Permission granted by Andrew Hewitt
• contemporarywriters.com - Writer profile.