Professor Kirsty Gunn

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Contact

Email

K.J.Gunn@dundee.ac.uk

Phone

+44 (0)1382 386680

Biography

Kirsty Gunn, BA (Hons), M.Phil., educated at Victoria University and Oxford, is the author of six novels - RainThe KeepsakeFeatherstoneThe Boy and the SeaThe Big Music and Caroline's Bikini - extended essays and short stories about identity and Katherine Mansfield - ThorndonMy Katherine Mansfield Project and  Going Bush - as well as two collections of short stories - This Place you Return to is Home and Infidelities- and 44 Things, a collection of essays, fragments and stories. She is the recipient of a number of awards and prizes including the Scottish Arts Council Bursary for Literature, the New York Times Notable Book award, Sundial Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year. The Big Music was shortlisted for the James Tait Black and Impact Awards and was a Guardian Book of the Year and winner of the New Zealand Book of the Year and her most recent novel, Caroline's Bikini, is just out in paperback this year. 

Her last collection of short stories, "Infidelities", published in November 2014, was awarded the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2015 and was also shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. She is published by Faber and Faber and internationally, and her work has been made into films, theatre, dance and widely broadcast.

She has previously taught Creative Writing at Oxford University and at a number of writing seminars and schools and now teaches modules in Writing Practice and Study, and directs, with Gail Low, the WritersRead series at Tonic in Dundee. She lives in London and Scotland with her husband and two daughters.

Further information about Kirsty is available on her website.

Research

Fiction - Short and long; Essays

Research interests

Relevance of fiction and the imagination in the 21st century

View full research profile and publications

Teaching

Undergraduate and Graduate modules in Writing Practice and Study; PhD supervision

Media availability

I am available for media commentary on my research.

Contact Corporate Communications for media enquiries.

Areas of expertise

  • Literature

Awards

Award Year
Stephen Fry Award for Excellence in Public Engagement with Research 2013