Lionel Shriver



Profile:


Full name: Margaret Ann Shriver

Area of interest: Society (esp. family issues & parenting, womens's issues), contemporary culture, US culture & politics

Journals: The Guardian

Email:

Website: Guardian.co / Lionel Shriver

Blog: Comment is free...

Agent: InkWell Management



Biography:
Education: Columbia University: Russian and English

Career: Taught English in New York; reported on the Troubles in Belfast for 12 years; published six novels before achieving popular and critical acclaim for the novel We Need to Talk About Kevin; has written a column for The Guardian since 2005

Current position/role: columnist


 * also writes/has written for: The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and the Philadelphia Enquirer

Other roles: journalist and author

Other activities:

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:
 * Interview: Author of We Need To Talk About Kevin talks with Robert Birnbaum IdentityTheory.com, 24th July 2003
 * Interview: BBC Radio 4, Woman’s Hour: Lionel Shriver joins Jenni Murray to talk about a book that raises profound questions about motherhood, 15th October 2003 (audio)
 * Interview: We need to talk... The Observer, 22nd April 2007

TV/Radio: Appearances on BBC2’s Late Review panel

Controversy/Criticism:
 * We need to talk about 'dumb' literary awards, Prize-winning author Lionel Shriver hits out at publishers and says latest accolade is a waste, By Arifa Akbar, Arts Correspondent, The Independent, 9th June 2010
 * Jason Deans (Organgrinder blog): Shriver attacks British television 26th August 2007

Awards/Honours: Winner of the Orange Prize For Fiction, 2005 for ‘We need to talk about Kevin’
 * BBC News: Honesty is the key for Orange winner 7th June 2005; The Post-Birthday World was elected by Time magazine as one of the top 10 books for 2007

Other: married to jazz drummer Jeff Williams



Books & Debate:



 * Early retirement (Thesis (M.F.A.) Columbia University, OCLC 50766367, 1982
 * The female of the species OCLC 14719072, 1987
 * Checker and the Derailleurs: a novel OCLC 17676958, 1988
 * The bleeding heart OCLC 22335942, 1990
 * Ordinary decent criminals OCLC 26548985, 1992
 * Double fault: a novel OCLC 36085175, 1997
 * We need to talk about Kevin OCLC 50948454, 2003
 * A perfectly good family OCLC 148667635, 2006
 * A post-birthday world OCLC 71223503, 2007, see: interview TheAge.com, 3rd March 2007

Latest work: So much for that: a novel OCLC 419855931, April 2010. Reviewed here in The Sunday Times by Tom Devenson

Speaking/Appearances:

Current debate: BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour: Jenni Murray speaks to Lionel Shriver and to Valerie Sinason an analyst who works with children and adults, specialising in trauma about the impact of ‘We need to talk about Kevin’ on psychoanalysts and psychotherapists working with abused and abusing children, 9th January 2008 (audio) 

The Guardian/Observer:

 * no regular column

Column remit: Society (esp. family issues & parenting, women's issues), contemporary culture, US culture & politics

Section: Comment

Role: Columnist

Pen-name:

Email:

Website: Guardian.co / Lionel Shriver

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Varies

Regularity: Infrequent

Column format:

Average length:



Articles:

 * an institutionalised incentive to gold-digging'' - Pre-nups aren't pretty, but they protect us from a law that says because you love someone they have a claim on everything you own - 23rd October 2010
 * write a nasty book. And they want a girly cover on it'' - Publishing's notion of what women want is dated and patronising. In my case it's like trying to stuff a rottweiler in a dress - 3rd September 2010
 * phoney finger-wagging won't talk Iran out of nukes'' - Drop the moral posturing, Hillary – US hypocrisy will be all too clear in Tehran. Only realpolitik can halt their nuclear ambitions - 17th August 2010
 * Betty: a warning from home-making history'' - To see the existential confusion of Mad Men's disconsolate housewife is to grasp the relevance of The Feminine Mystique - 10th March 2010
 * brother is eating himself to death'' - Lionel Shriver feared her older brother's weight problem would kill him. Days after she wrote this, he died - 1st December 2009
 * urban runner'' - From the solitude to the spectacle, Lionel Shriver enjoys everything about her nocturnal runs. Apart, that is, from the exercise involved - 1st November 2009
 * sold my family for a novel'' - When Lionel Shriver wrote a book based on her family, she expected 'a little aggro'. But all hell broke loose and the rift with her parents has yet to heal - 18th October 2009
 * kind of blue'' - Sexy, daring and irresistible, jazz didn't just turn music on its head - it dragged visual art into the 20th century. Lionel Shriver on a show that captures its jangling madness - 19th March 2009
 * be fooled by the 'little' woman'' - Helen Suzman's legacy will last far longer than the enemies who called her a 'vicious little cat' - 4th January 2009
 * me a randy politician any time - as long as he cuts inflation'' - John Edwards's confession shows it is time to care about our leaders' policies, not their peccadilloes - 17th August 2008
 * If the US election were a novel, the climax came in chapter three - now it has literally lost the plot - 17th July 2008
 * penchant for dissatisfaction is great when you're young; at 80, it's self-destructive'' - 15th June 2008
 * US taste for ghoulish 'murderabilia' '' - 29th May 2008
 * time for Mailer's ghost to rest in peace'' - Why do readers care about authorial tittle-tattle? Clearly, it's their work that counts, not the person - 27th April 2008
 * a jury can decide whether a reprobate dared to throw her apple core to the ground'' - 14th February 2008
 * Last time, Americans elected a moron. If they do better this time, I can show my face without shame - A Hillary win would not strike a blow for women's rights, but merely set a precedent for ascension to the presidency by marriage - 10th January 2008
 * I may recycle yoghurt pots and travel by bike - but I refuse to give up my old-style light bulbs - 3rd January 2008



Links:

 * Wikipedia bio