Novelist and short-story writer A.L. Kennedy has worked for the arts and special needs charity Project Ability since 1989, first as Writer in Residence (1989-95), then as editor of Outside Lines magazine, and has been a member of the Management Committee since 1998. She was editor of New Writing Scotland (1993-5) and was Writer in Residence at Copenhagen University in 1995. She reviews for The Scotsman, the Glasgow Herald and the Daily Telegraph, is a contributor to the Guardian, and has been a judge for both the Booker Prize for Fiction (1996) and The Guardian First Book Award (2001). She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2000.
Her first book, Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains (1990), a bleak collection of short stories set in Scotland, won several awards including the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, a Scottish Arts Council Book Award and the Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award. In 1993 she was named as one of Granta magazine's 20 'Best of Young British Novelists 2'.
She has written numerous short story collections, So I am Glad (1995) winning the Encore Award.
She wrote the screenplay to the BFI/Channel 4 film Stella Does Tricks, released in 1998, and edited New Writing 9 (2000) with John Fowles, published in the UK by Vintage in association with the British Council. Her book of short stories, Indelible Acts, was published in 2002.
Her first book, Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains (1990), a bleak collection of short stories set in Scotland, won several awards including the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, a Scottish Arts Council Book Award and the Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award. In 1993 she was named as one of Granta magazine's 20 'Best of Young British Novelists 2'.
She has written numerous short story collections, So I am Glad (1995) winning the Encore Award.
She wrote the screenplay to the BFI/Channel 4 film Stella Does Tricks, released in 1998, and edited New Writing 9 (2000) with John Fowles, published in the UK by Vintage in association with the British Council. Her book of short stories, Indelible Acts, was published in 2002.
Genres: Literary Fiction, Children's Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, General Fiction, Mystery
Series
Uncle Shawn
1. Uncle Shawn and Bill and the Almost Entirely Unplanned Adventure (2017)
2. Uncle Shawn and Bill and the Pajimminy Crimminy Unusual Adventure (2018)
3. Uncle Shawn and Bill and the Not One Tiny Bit Lovey-Dovey Moon Adventure (2019)
4. Uncle Shawn and Bill and the Great Big Purple Underwater Underpants Adventure (2020)
1. Uncle Shawn and Bill and the Almost Entirely Unplanned Adventure (2017)
2. Uncle Shawn and Bill and the Pajimminy Crimminy Unusual Adventure (2018)
3. Uncle Shawn and Bill and the Not One Tiny Bit Lovey-Dovey Moon Adventure (2019)
4. Uncle Shawn and Bill and the Great Big Purple Underwater Underpants Adventure (2020)
Novels
Looking for the Possible Dance (1993)
So I Am Glad (1995)
Original Bliss (1997)
Everything You Need (1999)
Paradise (2004)
Day (2007)
The Blue Book (2011)
Serious Sweet (2016)
So I Am Glad (1995)
Original Bliss (1997)
Everything You Need (1999)
Paradise (2004)
Day (2007)
The Blue Book (2011)
Serious Sweet (2016)
Collections
Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains (1991)
Now That You're Back (1994)
Tea and Biscuits (1996)
Indelible Acts (2002)
Ox-Tales:Air (2009) (with Diran Adebayo, Beryl Bainbridge, Helen Fielding, Alexander McCall Smith, D B C Pierre, Vikram Seth, Kamila Shamsie, Helen Simpson and Louise Welsh)
Crimespotting (2009) (with Lin Anderson, Kate Atkinson, Margaret Atwood, Chris Brookmyre, John Burnside, Isla Dewar, Denise Mina, Ian Rankin and James Robertson)
What Becomes (2009)
All the Rage (2014)
The Great War (2015) (with David Almond, John Boyne, Tracy Chevalier, Ursula Dubosarsky, Timothée De Fombelle, Adèle Geras, Michael Morpurgo, Marcus Sedgwick, Tanya Lee Stone and Sheena Wilkinson)
24 Stories of Hope (2018) (with Chris Brookmyre, Daisy Buchanan, Barney Farmer, Mike Gayle, Pauline Melville, John Niven, Nina Stibbe, Meera Syal, Zoe Venditozzi, Irvine Welsh and Murray Lachlan Young)
We Are Attempting to Survive Our Time (2020)
Same Same but Different (2021) (with Amanda Craig, Paul McVeigh, Alison Moore and Helen Simpson)
Now That You're Back (1994)
Tea and Biscuits (1996)
Indelible Acts (2002)
Ox-Tales:Air (2009) (with Diran Adebayo, Beryl Bainbridge, Helen Fielding, Alexander McCall Smith, D B C Pierre, Vikram Seth, Kamila Shamsie, Helen Simpson and Louise Welsh)
Crimespotting (2009) (with Lin Anderson, Kate Atkinson, Margaret Atwood, Chris Brookmyre, John Burnside, Isla Dewar, Denise Mina, Ian Rankin and James Robertson)
What Becomes (2009)
All the Rage (2014)
The Great War (2015) (with David Almond, John Boyne, Tracy Chevalier, Ursula Dubosarsky, Timothée De Fombelle, Adèle Geras, Michael Morpurgo, Marcus Sedgwick, Tanya Lee Stone and Sheena Wilkinson)
24 Stories of Hope (2018) (with Chris Brookmyre, Daisy Buchanan, Barney Farmer, Mike Gayle, Pauline Melville, John Niven, Nina Stibbe, Meera Syal, Zoe Venditozzi, Irvine Welsh and Murray Lachlan Young)
We Are Attempting to Survive Our Time (2020)
Same Same but Different (2021) (with Amanda Craig, Paul McVeigh, Alison Moore and Helen Simpson)
Novellas
Series contributed to
Elsewhere (with Theresa Breslin, Karen Campbell, Anne Fine, Debi Gliori, Alasdair Gray, William McIlvanney, Ali Smith, Miguel Syjuco, Alan Warner and Yiyun Li)
1. Here (2012)
1. Here (2012)
Doctor Who : Time Trips
The Death Pit (2013)
Doctor Who: Time Trips: The Collection (2015) (with Cecelia Ahern, Jake Arnott, Trudi Canavan, Jenny T Colgan, Stella Duffy, Nick Harkaway and Joanne Harris)
The Drosten's Curse (2015)
The Death Pit (2013)
Doctor Who: Time Trips: The Collection (2015) (with Cecelia Ahern, Jake Arnott, Trudi Canavan, Jenny T Colgan, Stella Duffy, Nick Harkaway and Joanne Harris)
The Drosten's Curse (2015)
Anthologies edited
Non fiction
Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1997)
On Bullfighting (1999)
On Writing (2013)
Novel Writing (2015) (with Romesh Gunesekera)
On Bullfighting (1999)
On Writing (2013)
Novel Writing (2015) (with Romesh Gunesekera)
Anthologies containing stories by A L Kennedy
Short stories
Failing to Fall (1994) |
Awards
|
A L Kennedy recommends

Kith and Kin (2004)
Stevie Davies
"Kith and Kin is another gem from Stevie Davies - crafted, moving and minutely well-observed."

Death of a Ladies' Man (2009)
Alan Bissett
"An insane, hallucinatory mosaic of sexual dysfunction, pathos, humour and narrative energy."

Life! Death! Prizes! (2012)
Stephen May
"A raw, funny and heartfelt book, full of surprising tenderness and hope."

The A26 / How's the Pain / The Panda Theory (2018)
Pascal Garnier
"A trippy, sleazy,sly and classy read."

Orchid & the Wasp (2018)
Caoilinn Hughes
"Caoilinn Hughes is the real thing an urgent, funny, painstaking and heartfelt writer. Orchid & the Wasp is a startling debut full of the moral complexity, grief and strange bewilderments of humanity. As the world spins ever more quickly in response to the demands of grifters, parasites and liars, this book offers a troubling, beautiful and wise response."

Little (2018)
Edward Carey
"'Little' is that rare thing a unique novel with a unique and fully-realised voice, rich in deadpan wit and surgically precise observation. By turns tragic, bizarre and deeply moving Little introduces readers to a heroine like no other and a book that will truly last. It is an absolute delight."

I Will Never See the World Again (2019)
Ahmet Altan
"Read this-it will explain why you ever read anything, why anyone ever writes."

Scabby Queen (2020)
Kirstin Innes
"Kirstin Innes is aiming high, writing for readers in the early days of a better nation."

Missionaries (2020)
Phil Klay
"Missionaries is an urgent, detailed, compassionate and quietly furious novel about America and her Forever Wars. Intensely readable, exciting, funny and heartbreaking - it will change you."
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