Jenni Fagan

Born in Scotland, poet and novelist Jenni Fagan graduated from Greenwich University and won a scholarship to the Royal Holloway MFA programme. She is currently completing a PhD on structuralism and Kafka’s Metamorphosis at the University of Edinburgh. She has won awards from organisations including Creative Scotland, Dewar Arts and Scottish Screen, and has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She was selected as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists after the publication of her debut novel, The Panopticon, which was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the James Tait Black Prize. Her own adaptation of The Panopticon was staged by the National Theatre of Scotland. Her second novel, The Sunlight Pilgrims, was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Encore Award and the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award, and won her Scottish Author of the Year at the Herald Culture Awards. Her third novel, Luckenbooth, is due for publication in January 2021. She has also published four collections of poetry, and recently directed her debut short film. She has written a second short film, Isolation, as part of the National Theatre of Scotland’s Scenes for Survival project, which is being shown on BBC iPlayer and online. The Narcissistic Fish is her first opera libretto.