Carolyn Jess-Cooke

Carolyn Jess-Cooke (born 1978) is a poet and novelist from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Biography

Carolyn Jess-Cooke was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1978. She was educated at The Queen's University of Belfast, where she received a BA (Hons), MA, and PhD by the age of 25. At 26 she took up a lectureship in film studies at the University of Sunderland, where she established herself as a film theorist, publishing numerous articles and books and receiving a reference in Who's Who in Research: Film. She took up a senior lectureship in Creative Writing at the University of Northumbria in 2009 but tendered her resignation to write full-time in January 2011. Prominent themes in Jess-Cooke's work include the supernatural, survival, motherhood, home, and feminism.

Jess-Cooke is the author of the novel, The Guardian Angel's Journal, which was published in 2011 in the UK and Commonwealth by Piatkus, an imprint of Little, Brown, and Guideposts Books in the USA. The book hit the Bookseller's Heatseaker's chart upon publication, sold 40,000 copies in its first week of publication in Italy., and hit the number two spot in the Netherlands. In the UK, Company magazine hailed Jess-Cooke as 'the new Audrey Niffenegger', while in the US, a starred review in Publisher's Weekly called Jess-Cooke 'one to watch.'. The book is published in 22 languages to date.

Jess-Cooke's poetry has also appeared in Poetry Review, Poetry London, Poetry New Zealand, Poetry Ireland Review, The Wolf, Magma, Poetry Wales, The Lonely Poets' Guide to Belfast, Black Mountain Review, Ambit, Tower Poetry, The SHOp, and in a ribbon of steel that runs for half a mile throughout a medical facility in Middlesbrough. Her debut poetry collection, Inroads, received an Eric Gregory Award, the Northern Promise Award, Tyrone Guthrie Prize for Poetry, and was shortlisted for the New London Poetry Award in 2010. A second poetry collection titled 'Boom!' - the title poem of which appears in the Summer 2012 issue of Poetry Review - is scheduled for publication with Seren in 2014.

Jess-Cooke's second novel, The Boy Who Could See Demons, was published in the UK by Piatkus in May 2012, where it was reviewed as 'one of the year's best reads.'. Random House published the book in 2013, with an ending that differed - rather dramatically - to the British version. The different ending is highly controversial, with Jess-Cooke commenting that she responded to her publisher's suggestions by experimenting with narrative form. A Hollywood film is currently being made of the book. The audiobook of the novel - released by Random House US in August 2013 - features Jess-Cooke narrating the part of Anya, one of the novel's lead characters.

Jess-Cooke currently resides in Whitley Bay, England with her family.

Bibliography

Fiction

• 2011 The Guardian Angel's Journal (Little, Brown/Piatkus)
• 2012 The Boy Who Could See Demons (Little, Brown/Piatkus)

Poetry

• 2014 BOOM! (Seren)
• 2010 Inroads (Seren)

Non-Fiction

• 2007 Shakespeare on Film: Such Things As Dreams Are Made of (London: Wallflower)
• 2009 Apocalyptic Shakespeares (co-edited with M. Croteau) (McFarland)
• 2010 Film Sequels (Edinburgh University Press)
• 2010 Second Takes: Critical Approaches to the Film Sequel (co-edited with C. Verevis) (SUNY)

Awards

• 2001 Academi Cardiff International Poetry Prize (2nd place)
• 2004 The Tyrone Guthrie Prize for Poetry
• 2004 Arts Council of Northern Ireland (travel award)
• 2005 Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors
• 2006 Arts Council of England Writer's Award
• 2008 Northern Promise Award
• 2009 Poetry Ireland Introductions Series
• 2013 Northern Promise Award
• 2013 Arts Council of England Award

External links

• Official website