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Samantha Harvey (author)

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For the English singer, see Samantha Harvey (singer).

Samantha Harvey
Harvey in 2019
Alma materBath Spa University
OccupationNovelist
AwardsBetty Trask Prize
Websitewww.samanthaharvey.co.uk

Samantha Harvey is an English novelist. She is the author of several critically acclaimed novels and has been shortlisted for various literary prizes, most recently for the 2024 Booker Prize for her novel Orbital.[1]

Early life and education

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Harvey spent the first decade of her life in Ditton, Kent near Maidstone, the daughter of a builder, until her parents' divorce.[2] After that, her mother moved to Ireland, and Harvey spent her teen years moving around with stints in York, Sheffield, and Japan.[3] Harvey studied philosophy at the University of York and the University of Sheffield. She completed the Bath Spa University Creative Writing MA course in 2005,[4] and has also completed a PhD in creative writing.[5]

Career

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Doing a headstand on stage at the Wigtown Book Festival

Her first novel The Wilderness (2009), is written from the point of view of man developing Alzheimer's disease,[6] and describes through increasingly fractured prose the unravelling effect of the disease. Her second novel, All Is Song (2012), is a novel about moral and filial duty, and about the choice between questioning and conforming.[7] The author has described the novel as a loose, modern day reimagining of the life of Socrates.[6][better source needed]

Her third novel, Dear Thief, is a long letter from a woman to her absent friend, detailing the emotional fallout of a love triangle. The novel is said to be based on the Leonard Cohen song "Famous Blue Raincoat".[8] Dear Thief was published in 2014 by Jonathan Cape. Harvey's fourth novel, The Western Wind, about a priest in fifteenth-century Somerset, was published in March 2018.[9]

The Shapeless Unease, her only work of non-fiction, is an account of her experience of severe insomnia. Her most recent novel, Orbital (2023), takes place on a space station over one day of low earth orbits, and was described by Mark Haddon as "one of the most beautiful novels I have read in a very long time".[6][better source needed]

Her short stories have appeared in Granta Magazine[6] and on BBC Radio 4.[10] She reviews for The Guardian and The New York Times, and has contributed essays and articles to The New Yorker, The Telegraph, The Guardian, and TIME magazine, among other publications. Her radio appearances include on Radio 4's Front Row, Open Book, A Good Read and Start the Week, and Radio 3's Free Thinking.[11]

On stage with Petina Gappah and Lee Randall at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Harvey's novels have been considered for many prizes, including the Man Booker Prize, the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Walter Scott Prize, and the Orange Prize. In 2010, she was named one of the 12 best new British novelists by The Culture Show.[6][better source needed] In 2019, The Western Wind won the Staunch Book Prize.[9]

Harvey is published in the UK by Jonathan Cape and in the US by Grove Atlantic. She is represented by the agent Anna Webber.

Harvey is a Reader on the MA in creative writing at Bath Spa University and a member of the academy for the Rathbones Folio Prize, and is as of 2023 acting as a mentor for the Rathbones Folio Mentorships.[12][citation needed] She was a member of the jury for the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and has held writing fellowships at MacDowell in the US, Hawthornden in Scotland,[13] and the Santa Maddalena Foundation in Italy.[14]

She teaches regularly for Arvon, and runs writing courses annually in Spain with the author Emma Hooper.[15]

Accolades

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Harvey's writing has been compared to that of Virginia Woolf,[16] and she has been praised for her lyrical prose and insightful explorations of the human psyche.

Nominations and prizes

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Orbital was shortlisted for the Booker Prize by mid-September 2024; winners are yet to be announced, and the recipient will obtain £50,000 on 12 November 2024.[17] Likewise, it has been shortlisted for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize; a winner is set to be announced on 21 October 2024.[18]

Year Title Award Category Result Ref
2009 The Wilderness AMI Literature Award — Won
Betty Trask Prize and Awards Betty Trask Prize Won [19]
Guardian First Book Award — Shortlisted [20]
Man Booker Prize — Longlisted [21]
Orange Prize for Fiction — Shortlisted [22]
2015 Dear Thief Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction — Longlisted [23][24]
James Tait Black Memorial Prize Fiction Shortlisted [25]
Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize — Longlisted
2018 The Western Wind HWA Crown Award Gold Crown Longlisted [26]
2019 Staunch Book Prize — Won [27]
Walter Scott Prize — Shortlisted [28]
2020 International Dublin Literary Award — Longlisted [29]
2024 Orbital Booker Prize — Pending [17]
Orwell Prize Political Fiction Shortlisted [30]
Ursula K. Le Guin Prize — Shortlisted [18]

Bibliography

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Novels

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  • —— (2009). The Wilderness. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 9780224086073.
  • —— (2012). All Is Song. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 9780224096324.
  • —— (2014). Dear Thief. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 9780224101721.
  • —— (2018). The Western Wind. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 9781787330597.
  • —— (2023). Orbital. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 9781787334342.[31][32][33][34][35]

Non-fiction

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Translations

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Harvey's novels have been published in the following translations: Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, Norwegian, Portuguese and Romanian.[6]

References

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  1. ^ Creamer, Ella (16 September 2024). "Percival Everett and Rachel Kushner make the 2024 Booker prize shortlist". The Guardian.
  2. ^ Hilder, Susan (25 May 2009). "Novelist on prestigious book list". Kent Online. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  3. ^ Harvey, Samantha (2 March 2019). "Samantha Harvey on Maidstone: 'Our three-bed semi was state-of-the-art 80s kitsch'". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  4. ^ Text on the inside of the backcover of The Wilderness.
  5. ^ "Samantha Harvey – Bath Spa University". www.bathspa.ac.uk. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e f http://samanthaharvey.co.uk/ [bare URL]
  7. ^ Text on the inside cover of All Is Song.
  8. ^ "Samantha Harvey Interview | CBC Radio".
  9. ^ a b "Samantha Harvey wins the 2019 Staunch Book Prize". The Times of India. 30 November 2019. ProQuest 2319567929.
  10. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - Skylines, African Beauty, by Samantha Harvey".
  11. ^ "News – Samantha Harvey". www.samanthaharvey.co.uk. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  12. ^ Story, First (9 November 2023). "Announcing: Folio Prize Mentorships 2023/24". First Story. Retrieved 9 August 2024.
  13. ^ "News – Samantha Harvey". www.samanthaharvey.co.uk. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  14. ^ admin (29 November 2021). "Samantha Harvey". Santa Maddalena Foundation. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  15. ^ "Workshops – Samantha Harvey". www.samanthaharvey.co.uk. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  16. ^ Wood, Gaby (14 March 2015). "Why great novels don't get noticed now". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  17. ^ a b Rufo, Yasmin (16 September 2024). "Women dominate 2024 Booker Prize shortlist". BBC News.
  18. ^ a b "Ursula K. Le Guin — 2024 Prize for Fiction (Shortlist)". Ursula K. Le Guin. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  19. ^ "The Betty Trask Prize". The Society of Authors. 8 May 2020. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  20. ^ "Guardian First Book Award 2009". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  21. ^ "The Wilderness". The Booker Prizes. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  22. ^ Brown, Mark (22 April 2009). "Samantha Harvey shortlisted for Orange Prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  23. ^ Passmore, Lynsey (7 March 2015). "Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction announce 2015 longlist". Women's Prize. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  24. ^ "Baileys women's prize for fiction longlist - in pictures". The Guardian. 10 March 2015. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  25. ^ "James Tait Black Prizes 2015". The University of Edinburgh. 12 April 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  26. ^ "The HWA Crowns Longlist 2018". Historical Writers’ Association. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  27. ^ "2019 Shortlist – Staunch Book Prize". Staunch Book Prize. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  28. ^ "Carey shortlisted for 2019 Walter Scott Prize". Books+Publishing. 3 April 2019.
  29. ^ "2020 International Dublin Literary Award". International Dublin Literary Award. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  30. ^ "Orwell Prizes 2024 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 11 June 2024. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
  31. ^ Cummins, Anthony (28 October 2023). "Samantha Harvey: 'I like Alien as much as anybody else. But I see this novel as space pastoral'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  32. ^ Ferris, Joshua (5 December 2023). "It's Harder to See the World's Problems From 250 Miles Up". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  33. ^ Patrick, Bethanne (11 December 2023). "Lacking perspective? Try orbiting the Earth at 17,500 miles per hour". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  34. ^ Kelly, Stuart. "Book review: Orbital, by Samantha Harvey". The Scotsman.
  35. ^ Mars-Jones, Adam (8 February 2024). "Space Aria". London Review of Books. Vol. 46, no. 3. ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  36. ^ "The Shapeless Unease". Penguin Books UK. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
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