Rachel Cusk
Rachel Cusk | |
---|---|
Born | Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada | 8 February 1967
Occupation | Author |
Language | English |
Education | New College, Oxford |
Notable works | Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation (2012) The Outline Trilogy: Outline (2014), Transit (2017) & Kudos (2018) |
Rachel Cusk (born 8 February 1967)[1] is a British novelist and writer.
Childhood and education
Cusk was born in
Career
Early works
Cusk published her first novel, Saving Agnes in 1993 which received the
Her seventh novel,
In responding to the formal problems of the novel representing female experience, she began to work in non-fiction: A Life's Work, a memoir of motherhood published in 2001, and 2012's Aftermath, which chronicled her marriage to and divorce from her second husband, the photographer Adrian Clarke.[10][3] Cusk has been a professor of creative writing at Kingston University.[1][11]
Trilogy and later works
After a long period of consideration, Cusk began working in a new form that represented personal experience while avoiding the politics of subjectivity and literalism and remaining free from narrative convention. That project became a trilogy of "autobiographical novels":[12] Outline, Transit, and Kudos. The books largely consist of an unnamed narrator chronicling the conversations she has with others, as she goes about her life as a writer.[13]
Reviewing Cusk's novel Transit, critic
Reviews of Kudos, the last novel of Cusk's trilogy, were largely positive.[21][22] Writing for The New Yorker, Katy Waldman called it "a book about failure that is not, in itself, a failure. In fact, it is a breathtaking success."[23]
In 2015, the
Cusk’s novel Second Place was published in 2021. It is inspired by the memoirs of
Personal life
After a brief first marriage to a banker,[1] Cusk was married to photographer Adrian Clarke, with whom she has two daughters.[31] The couple separated in 2011. Their divorce became a major topic in Cusk's writings.[3]
Cusk is married to retail consultant and artist Siemon Scamell-Katz.[32][33] In 2021, the couple moved from residence in London and Norfolk[5] to Paris,[34] a protest in part against the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.[35]
Bibliography
Novels
- Saving Agnes (1993)
- The Temporary (1995)
- The Country Life (1997)
- The Lucky Ones (2003)
- In the Fold (2005)
- Arlington Park (2006)
- The Bradshaw Variations (2009)
- The Outline Trilogy
- Outline (2014)
- Transit (2016)
- Kudos (2018)
- Second Place (2021)
- Parade (2024)
Non-fiction
- A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother (2001)
- The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy (2009)[36][37]
- Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation (2012)
- Coventry: Essays (2019)
- Quarry (2022)[38]
Theatre
- Medea, Euripides - A new Version, 2015, Commissioned by and originally produced at the Almeida theatre in London, UK.
- Marble in Metamorphosis (2022)
Introductions and forewords
- Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (Penguin, 2008)
- The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (Folio Society, 2009)
- The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence (Vintage, 2011)
- Complete Stories by Kingsley Amis (Penguin Classics, 2011)
Short stories
- "After Caravaggio's Sacrifice of Isaac", Granta, 2003[39]
- "The Stuntman", The New Yorker, 2023[40]
Awards and prizes
- 1993 Whitbread First Novel Award - Saving Agnes[41]
- 1997 Somerset Maugham Award - The Country Life[42]
- 2003 Whitbread Novel Award (shortlist) - The Lucky Ones[43]
- 2005 Man Booker Prize (longlist) – In the Fold[44]
- 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction (shortlist) - Arlington Park[45]
- 2014 Goldmiths Prize (shortlist)
- 2015 Folio Prize(shortlist)
- 2015 Bailey's Prize (shortlist)
- 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize (shortlist)[46]
- 2015 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction (shortlist)
- 2016 Goldsmiths Prize (shortlist)
- 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize (shortlist)[47]
- 2018 Goldsmiths Prize (shortlist)[48]
- 2021 Booker Prize (longlist) - Second Place
- 2021 Governor General's Award for English-language fiction (shortlist) - Second Place[29]
- 2022 Prix Femina étranger - Second Place[49]
Further reading
- "Suburban Worlds: Rachel Cusk and Jon McGregor." In B. Schoene. The Cosmopolitan Novel. Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
References
- ^ a b c d e f Barber, Lynn (30 August 2009). "Rachel Cusk: A fine contempt". The Observer. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ^ Bethune, Brian (26 October 2015). "Rachel Cusk: 'On a winding road in the dark'". Maclean's. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ a b c Kellaway, Kate (24 August 2014). "Rachel Cusk: 'Aftermath was creative death. I was heading into total silence'". The Observer. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ^ Heti, Sheila. "The Art of Fiction No. 246". The Paris Review: 35–63.
- ^ a b c d Thurman, Judith (31 July 2017). "Rachel Cusk Gut-Renovates the Novel". The New Yorker. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
- ^ Garan Holcombe (2013), Rachel Cusk: Critical perspective, British Council, retrieved 29 December 2016
- ^ "The Country Life", Publishers Weekly, 4 January 1999, retrieved 29 December 2016
- ^ "Fiction Book Review: THE LUCKY ONES by Rachel Cusk, Author". Publishers Weekly. 26 January 2004. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
- ^ "Granta list of Best Young British Novelists". 2003.
- ^ Cusk, Rachel (21 March 2008). "I Was Only Being Honest". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ^ "Rachel Cusk". Poets & Writers. 19 June 2018. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
- ^ Blair, Elaine (5 January 2015). "All Told". The New Yorker. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- ^ "The 10 Best Books of 2015". The New York Times. 3 December 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ^ Julavits, Heidi (11 January 2015). "Rachel Cusk's Outline". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
- ^ "The Folio Prize announces 2015 shortlist". The Folio Prize. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
- ^ Dunmore, Helen (28 August 2016). "Transit by Rachel Cusk – a woman's struggle to rebuild her life". The Guardian.
- ^ Garner, Dwight (17 January 2017). "Rachel Cusk's Transit Offers Transcendent Reflections". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
- ^ Waldman, Katy (22 May 2018). "Kudos, the Final Volume of Rachel Cusk's "Faye" Trilogy, Completes an Ambitious Act of Refusal". The New Yorker. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
- ^ "Rachel Cusk interview: 'Medea is about divorce … A couple fighting is an eternal predicament. Love turning to hate'". The Guardian. 3 October 2015. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
- ^ "Medea, Almeida Theatre, London — review". Financial Times. 4 October 2015. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
- ^ "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. 10 May 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
- ^ "Where Life Ends and Art Begins: On Rachel Cusk's "Second Place"". Cleveland Review of Books. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
- ^ Flood, Alison (26 July 2021). "Booker prize reveals globe-spanning longlist of 'engrossing stories'". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
- ^ CBC Books, October 14, 2021.
- ^ Dupuy, Éric (7 November 2022). "Claudie Hunzinger, Rachel Cusk et Annette Wieviorka primées au Femina 2022". Livres Hebdo (in French). Retrieved 8 November 2022.
- ^ Cusk, Rachel (17 February 2012). "Rachel Cusk: my broken marriage". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ^ Carponen, Claire. "The $2.7 Million English Coastal Home Of Author Rachel Cusk Hits The Market". Forbes. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
- ^ "Rachel Cusk's house is an austere, experimental, hyper-modern masterpiece. (Shocking, right?)". Literary Hub. 28 August 2019. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
- ^ "Rachel Cusk won't stay still". Atlantic. 24 October 2022.
- ^ Hitchens, Antonia (4 May 2021). "Rachel Cusk's 'Second Place' Might Be the First Pandemic Novel". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ Laing, Olivia (24 January 2009). "Review of The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy by Rachel Cusk". The Guardian.
- ^ Begley, Adam (28 May 2009). "Review of The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy by Rachel Cusk". The New York Times.
- ^ "C38 Quarry". Sylph Editions. April 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
- ^ ""After Caravaggio's Sacrifice of Isaac," by Rachel Cusk". Granta. 14 April 2003. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
- ^ Cusk, Rachel (17 April 2023). ""The Stuntman," by Rachel Cusk". The New Yorker. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
- ^ "Whitbread Winners 1971-2005" (PDF). Costa Book Awards. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
- The Society of Authors. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
- ^ "Whitbread 2003 shortlists". The Daily Telegraph. 10 November 2003. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
- ^ "In the Fold". The Man Booker Prizes. September 2005. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
- ^ "2007 Shortlist". Women's Prize for Fiction. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
- ^ "The Scotiabank Giller Prize Presents Its 2015 Shortlist". Scotiabank Giller Prize. Canada. 5 October 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
- ^ "The Scotiabank Giller Prize Presents Its 2017 Shortlist". Scotiabank Giller Prize. Canada. 2 October 2017. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
- ^ Gatti, Tom (26 September 2018). "Rachel Cusk makes Goldsmiths Prize shortlist for the third time". New Statesman. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ^ Dupuy, Éric (7 November 2022). "Claudie Hunzinger, Rachel Cusk et Annette Wieviorka primées au Femina 2022". Livres Hebdo (in French). Retrieved 8 November 2022.
External links
- Elaine Blair in The New Yorker on Rachel Cusk and Outline
- https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/07/books/outline-rachel-cusks-new-novel.html
- http://www.sydneyreviewofbooks.com/outline-rachel-cusk/
- https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/01/the-uncoupling/508742/
- https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/aftermath-on-marriage-and-separation-by-rachel-cusk-xn0xgt0lsp9