Alasdair Gray

Alasdair Gray was born in December 1934 in Glasgow, where he studied fine arts. A set designer, painter, and playwright, in addition to being a novelist and poet, Gray is considered a leading voice in Scottish literature, although his work transcends national boundaries. An experimenter with form and style, he blends narrative genres, crafts inventive plots, and infuses his stories with a wild humor. Entertaining yet simultaneously political and social, Gray champions a unique realism that critics say makes him one of the most important English-language authors. His first novel was "Lanark: A Life in Four Books" (1981), followed by several short story collections, the autobiographical "Saltire Self-Portrait 4" (1988), the poetry collection "Old Negatives" (1989), the novels "McGrotty and Ludmilla" (1989), "Poor Things" (1992), "A History Maker" (1994), "Mavis Belfrage" (1996), and the unconventional "A Short Survey of Literary Thought by Great Authors of Four Nations, Between the 7th and 20th Century," a highly personal anthology titled "The Book of Prefaces" (2000). All of his books are illustrated and edited by himself. His work "Poor Things" was awarded the prestigious Whitbread Award in 1992, as well as the Guardian Fiction Prize.