James Hopkin
James Hopkin gained a First Class degree in English Literature and Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University, earned a distinction for a Master's degree in modern literature and then a doctorate at the University of East Anglia, for which he received a British Academy Award. In 1998, he began to write literary criticism, author interviews and travel articles for The New Statesman magazine and The Guardian. He has since written for publications such as The Times, The Independent on Sunday, The Independent, Intelligent Life, Lonely Planet, The Observer, The Financial Times, The Times Literary Supplement and others. However, his creative work exploring place, landscape and identity is his main pursuit. He has had two short story trilogies dramatised on BBC Radio 4, “A Dalmation Trilogy’’ (2012) and “A Georgian Trilogy’’ (2010), as well as one set in Berlin, ‘’The Mural at Frau Krauser’s’’ (2008). Last year he was especially commissioned to write a short story ‘’Of all the Faces in the World, Your Face’’ for the Edinburgh International Book Festival, a story which the director of the festival, Nick Barley, described, as ‘the only avant-garde story’’ in the festival anthology, ‘Elsewhere’. Hopkin read the story at an event at the festival.Earlier, in 2002, he won the inaugural Norwich Prize for Literature with the short story ‘Even the Crows Say Krakow’ which was subsequently published by Picador along with another story, ‘Apple Vapours’. In 2007, he published the acclaimed debut novel, Winter Under Water (Picador) with the Independent declaring that ‘’few first-time novelists can conjure words to such magical effect’’. He has continued to publish stories, and he received a J.B. Priestley Award in 2010. His new novel, Say Goodbye to Breakfast (Picador) will be published later this year.