Glenn Patterson

Glenn Paterson
FRSL
Patterson in 2014
Born1961 (age 64–65)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
EducationMethodist College, Belfast
University of East Anglia
Writing career
Notable awardsRooney Prize for Irish Literature, Betty Trask Award

Glenn Patterson FRSL (born 1961) is a writer from Belfast, Northern Ireland, best known as a novelist. In 2023, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Early life

Patterson was born in Belfast, where he attended Methodist College Belfast. He graduated from the University of East Anglia (BA, MA), where he was a product of the UEA creative writing course under Malcolm Bradbury.

Career

In addition to writing novels, Patterson also makes documentaries for the BBC, and has published his collected journalistic writings as Lapsed Protestant (2006). He has written plays for Radio 3 and Radio 4, and co-wrote with Colin Carberry the screenplay of the 2013 film Good Vibrations, about the music scene in Belfast during the late 1970s (based on the true story of Terri Hooley).

Patterson's recurring theme is the reassessment of the past. In The International, he recovers that moment in Belfast's history just before the outbreak of the Troubles, to show diverse strands of city life around a city centre hotel, essentially to make the point that the political propagandists who explain their positions through history overlook its inconvenient complexity and the possibility that things might have turned out differently.

He is currently a Professor of Creative Writing in the School of Arts, English and Literature and Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University Belfast.

Patterson has been a writer in residence at the University of East Anglia and the University College Cork, and was the Ireland Fund Artist-in-Residence in the Celtic Studies Department of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto in October 2013.

Personal life

He lives in Belfast with his wife, Ali Fitzgibbon, and two children.

Bibliography

Novels

  • Burning Your Own (London: Chatto and Windus, 1988)
  • Fat Lad (London: Chatto and Windus, 1992)
  • Black Night at Big Thunder Mountain (London: Chatto and Windus, 1995)
  • The International (London: Anchor Books, 1999)
  • Number 5 (London: Hamish Hamilton, 2003)
  • That Which Was (London: Hamish Hamilton, 2004)
  • The Third Party (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2007)
  • The Mill for Grinding Old People Young (London: Faber, 2012)
  • Gull (London: Head of Zeus, 2016)
  • Where Are We Now? (London: Head of Zeus, 2020)

Non-fiction

  • Lapsed Protestant (Dublin: New Island Books, 2006), journalistic writings
  • Once Upon a Hill: Love in Troubled Times (London: Bloomsbury, 2008), memoir
  • Backstop Land (London: Head of Zeus, 2019), journalistic writings

Awards

References

  1. ↑ Creamer, Ella (12 July 2023). "Royal Society of Literature aims to broaden representation as it announces 62 new fellows". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 November 2023. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  2. ↑ "Glenn Patterson". www.discovernorthernireland.com. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  3. 1 2 Glenn Patterson page Archived 2015-04-07 at the Wayback Machine - Literature, British Council.
  4. ↑ "Good Vibrations script-writers await BAFTA announcement". Belfast Newsletter. National World. Archived from the original on 23 February 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  5. ↑ Maureen Coleman, "Good Vibrations misses out on Bafta - dreams of glory dashed" Archived 8 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Belfast Telegraph, 17 February 2014.
  6. ↑ Claire Burgess, "An Interview with Glenn Patterson" Archived 2012-10-06 at the Wayback Machine, Nashville Review, 1 August 2010.
  7. 1 2 "Professor Glenn Patterson". Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  8. ↑ "SMC Sponsored Programs, Celtic Studies, Ireland Fund Artist-in-Residence Program". St Michael's College. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  9. ↑ "Our big night at the BAFTAs - Good Vibrations writer Glenn Patterson". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. 15 February 2014. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  10. ↑ "BBC - Get Writing NI - Glenn Patterson". www.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 April 2024. Retrieved 21 April 2024.