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Ali Smith

Scotland (b.1962)

Ali Smith was born in Inverness in 1962 and lives in Cambridge. Smith writes for The Guardian, The Scotsman and the TLS.

Awards: Orwell (2021), Women's Prize (2015), Goldsmiths (2014), Costa (2014) see all

Genres: Literary Fiction, Children's Fiction, Fantasy

New and upcoming books

January 2026

Glyph
(Gliff, book 2)

Series

Seasonal Quartet
   1. Autumn (2016)
   2. Winter (2017)
   3. Spring (2019)
   4. Summer (2020)

Gliff
1. Gliff (2024)
2. Glyph (2026)

Novels

   Like (1997)
   Hotel World (2001)
   The Accidental (2005)
   There but for the (2011)
   How to be both (2014)
   Companion Piece (2022)

Collections

   Free Love and Other Stories (1998)
   Other Stories and Other Stories (1999)
   The Whole Story and Other Stories (2003)
   Writ (2006)
   The First Person (2008)
   Road Stories (2012) (with others)
   Six Shorts (2013) (with others)
   Shire (2013)
   Public Library and Other Stories (2015)
   Scottish Stories: Everyman Pocket Classics (2023) (with others)
   Furies (2023) (with others)

Anthologies edited

   Brilliant Careers (2000) (with Kasia Boddy and Sarah Wood)
   Shorts (2000)
   Mays 2003 (2003)
   New Writing: No. 13 (2005) (with Toby Litt)
   The Reader (2006)
   The Book Lover (2008)
   Let's Call the Whole Thing Off (2009) (with Kasia Boddy and Sarah Wood)

Series contributed to

Myths
7. Girl Meets Boy (2007)

Ox-Tales
Ox-Tales: Fire (2009) (with others)

Park Stories
5. The Definite Article (2009)

Elsewhere
1. Here (2012) (with others)

Save the Story
1. The Story of Antigone (2013)

Plays show

Non fiction show

Books containing stories by Ali Smith

A Cage Went in Search of a Bird (2024)
Ten Kafkaesque Stories

First Light (2022)
A Celebration of Alan Garner
edited by
Erica Wagner

Arboreal (2016)
A Collection of Words from the Woods
edited by
Adrian Cooper

More books

Awards

	2021 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction : Summer
	2015 Women's Prize For Fiction : How to be both
	2014 Goldsmiths Prize : How to be both
	2014 Costa Book Award for Best Novel : How to be both
	2005 Whitbread Prize for Best Novel : The Accidental
	2002 Encore Award : Hotel World

Award nominations

	2018 British Book Award Fiction Book of the Year (shortlist) : Winter
	2017 Booker Prize (shortlist) : Autumn
	2015 The Writers' Prize for Fiction (nominee) : How to be both
	2014 Saltire Literary Award (nominee) : How to be both
	2014 Booker Prize (shortlist) : How to be both
	2013 Goldsmiths Prize (nominee) : Artful
	2011 James Tait Black Memorial Prize (nominee) : There but for the
	2006 Women's Prize For Fiction (nominee) : The Accidental
	2005 James Tait Black Memorial Prize (nominee) : The Accidental
	2005 Booker Prize (shortlist) : The Accidental
	2001 Women's Prize For Fiction (nominee) : Hotel World
	2001 Booker Prize (shortlist) : Hotel World

Ali Smith recommends

Parasol Against the Axe (2024)
Helen Oyeyemi
"A writer of sentences so elegant that they gleam."

Best of Friends (2022)
Kamila Shamsie
"A shining tour de force."

News of the Dead (2021)
James Robertson
"A marvellous novelist."

Simple Fire (2021)
George Mackay Brown
"One of the masters of the short story form."

A Fire in My Head (2021)
Ben Okri
"A literary and social visionary."

A Thousand Moons (2020)
(Days Without End, book 2)
Sebastian Barry
"Nobody writes like, nobody takes lyrical risks like, nobody pushes the language, and the heart, and the two together, quite like Sebastian Barry does, so that you come out of whatever he writes like you've been away, in another climate."

Girl, Woman, Other (2019)
Bernardine Evaristo
"Bernardine Evaristo can take any story from any time and turn it into something vibrating with life."

Lost Children Archive (2019)
Valeria Luiselli
"A novelist of a rare vitality."

Felix Culpa (2018)
Jeremy Gavron
"One of our more innovative, quietly inventive, and exciting novelists."

Forest Dark (2017)
Nicole Krauss
"Restores your faith in fiction."

London Lies Beneath (2016)
Stella Duffy
"A writer who never lets you down."

The Echo Chamber (2011)
Luke Williams
"Original, brilliant, inconceivable. It gives a reader new ears."

Perfect Lives (2010)
Polly Samson
"An unexpected combination of romp and classical: though-provoking, sassy and comforting."

Lime Tree Can't Bear Orange (2009)
Amanda Smyth
"Mesmerizing. Amanda Smyth is a natural-born novelist."

A Life Apart (2008)
Neel Mukherjee
"Incisive and poetic, sensual and intelligent."

Fair Play (2007)
Tove Jansson
"Fair Play is very fine art."

Wish I Was Here (2006)
Jackie Kay
"No one in the world writes short stories like Jackie Kay. This is a collection full of voice, life, hilarity. Her writing has a truthfulness that's both hard-won and beautiful."

An Evening of Long Goodbyes (2003)
Paul Murray
"A lyrical, satirical tour de force, a huge, hilarious elegy. A surreal and very funny festival of truths, fictions, luck, and love. How can this be a first novel? A triumph."

If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things (2002)
Jon McGregor
"A tremendous read. The whole book quivers, picks up its detail like a sensitive antenna, immensely fragile, yet in that unstoppable lyrical energy immensely tough."

Beware of Pity (1939)
Stefan Zweig
"Frightening gripping an intoxicating, morally shocking read."

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