McCourt returned to NewYork in 1949, where he managed to survive doing odd jobs, until he was drafted during The Korean War. On his discharge he managed to bluff his way into New York University, where in 1957 he graduated with a batchelor’s degree in English. He went on to teach at six schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan and earned his master’s degree in 1967. Read More
During his time there he was also a contributing editor for Flying magazine and Avian, before finally writing his first novel Jonathan Livingstone Seagull in 1970. Bach went on to have a full literary career, writing many fiction and nonfiction books, most of which were somehow based around flying. Read More
Oates is one of the most celebrated American authors of our time and has won many awards including the National Book Award for her novel Them (US – UK), two O. Henry Awards and the National Humanities Medal. She has also been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize six times. Read More
This fantastic writer would scoff at anyone who proclaims that politics should be kept away from literature. We’ve gathered 10 of her most insightful quotes here for your perusal…
As a young man working in an advertising agency Carey was introduced to authors such as Faulkner and Joyce and was inspired to pick up his own pen. Thanks to his job introducing him to a wide selection of writers, Carey got the literary education he lacked at school.
After thirteen years of writing, and rejection of four of his novels, he finally hit gold with his short story collection – The Fat Man in History (1974). He is still writing today, with his recent book A Long Way from Home (2018) is a passionate and critically-minded novel about living legacies of colonialism in Australia.
The award-winning writer is one of four authors to have won the Booker Prize twice- the others being Hilary Mantel, J. G. Farrell, and J. M. Coetzee.
After studying French for his degree at Oxford, Fowles taught English, first at The University of Poitiers in France and then on the Greek island of Spetsai. It was his time on this island that gave him the inspiration for his first novel “The Magus”. Read More
Chandler is considered the founder for his type of American detective genre, and is still an inspirational and influential author.
Novelist and Commentator Ahdaf Soueif was born in Egypt on 23rd March 1950. She has since spent her life living between England and Egypt.
When Soueif first came to England at the age of four, it was with her Mother who was studying for her PHD in English Literature. She spent these early years surrounded by her Mother’s extensive library of English classics and world literature in translation. She believes this early introduction to reading, is why she writes her novels in English.
Ahdaf Soueif was the first Muslim woman to be shortlisted for the Booker prize for her novel “The Map of Love” (US – UK). Her work has been translated into 21 languages and sold over a million copies worldwide. Read More
Roth’s work, influenced by the likes of John Updike, William Faulkner and Franz Kafka, is mainly semi-autobiographical and set in his birthplace, Newark, New Jersey.
One of the most awarded novelists of his generation, Roth won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 for his novel American Pastoral (US – UK). This has since been made in to a film starring Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly and Dakota Fanning, joining the list of seven of his other works that have also been adapted for the big screen. Read More
