A. L. Kennedy

Kennedy was born in Dundee 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 and went on to study for a BA Hons in Theatre Studies and Dramatic Arts at the University of Warwick.^[2][3][4]

From 1987 to 1989,^{[citation needed]} Kennedy was a community arts worker for Clydebank District Council. She then went on to a role as writer-in-residence for Hamilton and East Kilbride 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.^[4][5]

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.^[6] In 2016, her novel Serious Sweet was long-listed for the Booker Prize.

In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, she signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn'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."^[7][8]

In 2020 she began contributing a column on her views of Brexit to the German daily paper Süddeutsche Zeitung.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Kennedy currently lives in the Scottish Highlands, having moved from Wivenhoe^[13] and has been an associate professor in Creative Writing at the University of Warwick^[14] since 2007, having previously taught creative writing at the University of St Andrews from 2003 to 2007.

She has performed as a stand-up comedian at the Edinburgh Fringe and literary festivals. Her main comedy club has been The Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh.^[15]

Her 2023 novel Als lebten wir in einem barmherzigen Land was First published in German Translation rather than the English original.[2]

• Scottish Arts Council Book Award four times^[5]
• 1993, 2003 Granta Best Young British Novelist^[5][16]
• 1991 Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year, Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains^[17]
• 1993 Edinburgh Fringe First, The Audition^[17][18]
• 1994 Somerset Maugham Award, Looking for the possible dance^[5][17]
• 1996 Encore Award winner, So I Am Glad^[19]
• 2007 Saltire Society Book of the Year, Day^[5][20]
• 2007 Lannan Literary Award for fiction^[5]
• 2007 Austrian State Prize for European Literature winner^[21]
• 2007 Costa Book Awards Book of the Year, winner for Day^[22]
• 2008 Internationale Eifel-Literatur-Preis^[5][23]
• 2014 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award shortlist All the Rage^[24]
• 2016 Heinrich Heine Prize^[25]
• 2016 Ehrenpreis des Österreichischen Buchhandels für Toleranz in Denken und Handeln^[26]

• Looking for the Possible Dance (1993) ISBN 978-0-7493-9758-6
• So I Am Glad (1995) ISBN 978-0-09-945721-3
• Everything You Need (1999) ISBN 978-0-09-973061-3
• Paradise (2004) ISBN 978-0-09-943349-1
• Day (5 April 2007) ISBN 978-0-09-949405-8
• The Blue Book (4 August 2011) ISBN 978-0-224-09140-4
• Doctor Who: The Drosten's Curse (14 July 2015) ISBN 978-0-553-41944-3
• Serious Sweet (19 May 2016) ISBN 978-0-224-09844-1
• The Little Snake (6 November 2018) ISBN 978-1786893864
• Als lebten wir in einem barmherzigen Land (20 March 2023) ISBN 978-3446276246

• Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains (1990) ISBN 978-0-09-945006-1
• Now That You're Back (1994) ISBN 978-0-09-945711-4
• Tea and Biscuits (1996) ISBN 978-1-85799-757-6
• Original Bliss (1997) ISBN 978-0-09-973071-2
• Indelible Acts (2002) ISBN 978-0-09-943348-4
• What Becomes (6 August 2009) ISBN 978-0-224-07787-3
• All the Rage (2014) ISBN 978-0544307049
• We Are Attempting To Survive Our Time (2020) ISBN 978-1787331822

• Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (1997) ISBN 0-85170-568-5
• On Bullfighting (1999) ISBN 0-224-06099-6
• On Writing (2013) ISBN 978-0-224-09697-3

"Stella Does Tricks (1996) Channel 4 films "Dice (2001), with John Burnside

• Confessions of a Medium (2010), broadcast as the Saturday Play on BBC Radio 4, 13 March 2010 and 1 March 2013^[27]
• 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^[28]
• 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)

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to A. L. Kennedy.

• Official website  
• A. L. Kennedy at British Council: Literature
• A L Kennedy at the Guardian
• BBC profile
• AL Kennedy reading at writLOUD in London