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Damon Galgut

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Damon Galgut
Galgut in 2013
Galgut in 2013
Born (1963-11-12) 12 November 1963 (age 61)
Pretoria, South Africa
Occupation
EducationPretoria Boys High School; University of Cape Town
GenreDrama, fiction, short stories
Notable worksThe Good Doctor (2003)
The Promise (2021)
Notable awardsBooker Prize (2021)

Damon Galgut (born 12 November 1963) is a South African novelist and playwright. He was awarded the 2021 Booker Prize for his novel The Promise, having previously been shortlisted for the award in 2003 and 2010.[1]

Early life and education

[edit]

Galgut was born on 12 November 1963 in Pretoria, South Africa.[1][2] His father was from a Jewish family and his mother converted to Judaism.[3][4] At the age of six, he was diagnosed with lymphoma.[5][6]

Galgut was head boy of Pretoria Boys High School, matriculating in 1981.[7] He then studied drama at the University of Cape Town.[2]

Literary career

[edit]

Galgut wrote his first novel, A Sinless Season (1982), when he was 17.[8] His next book, a collection of short stories called Small Circle of Beings (1988), includes an eponymous novella that describes a mother's struggle with her son's illness.[9][10] His novel The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs (1991) won the Central News Agency Literary Award in 1992.[11] His next novel, The Quarry (1995), was made into a feature film, with a 1998 release. A second feature film version was released in 2020.[12][13]

After The Good Doctor, his fifth novel, was published in 2003, Galgut's work became better known outside South Africa.[14] The story of two contrasting characters in a remote, rural hospital in post-apartheid South Africa, The Good Doctor was enthusiastically received by critics.[15] It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2003[16] and also won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book: Africa (2003).[2]

His novel In a Strange Room was shortlisted for the 2010 Booker Prize for fiction.[17] Reviewing the novel in The Guardian, Jan Morris wrote, "I doubt if any book in 2010 will contain more memorable evocations of place than In a Strange Room."[18] She described In a Strange Room as a "beautiful" book that is "strikingly conceived and hauntingly written".[18] His 2014 Arctic Summer presents a fictionalized account, “drawn with fidelity to the historical persona of the English novelist”, of the middle years in the life of novelist E. M. Forster, focusing on Forster’s years in India and Alexandria. The novel, “a remarkable, lyrical tribute to the remarkable nature of [Forster’s] understanding as a human being and as an artist”, was short-listed for the Walter Scott Prize.[19]

Galgut's novel The Promise won the 2021 Booker Prize,[20] making him the third writer from South Africa to win the Booker, following Nadine Gordimer and J. M. Coetzee, who has won twice.[21] Galgut says the theme of the book is time. The original idea came from a conversation with a friend, who is the last surviving member of his family, and told Galgut about the funerals he had attended for his mother, father, brother, and sister.[22]

In addition to his novels, Galgut has written several plays.[11] At the time of his Booker win, Galgut was working on a collection of short stories.[23]

Personal life

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Galgut is gay and has stated that this leads him to focus on more male-oriented relationships in his writing.[24] Galgut credits the Roald Dahl short story "Pig" as having had the greatest influence on his writing.[25]

He has lived in Cape Town since the early 1990s.[26] He is a keen traveller and wrote much of The Good Doctor in a hotel in Goa. He describes himself as "obsessed" with yoga, and for some time did not own a car or a television.[27] Galgut has a "fetish around stationery" and writes longhand on notebooks first rather than on a typewriter or computer. After two complete drafts, he then transfers it to the computer. He has used a particular tortoiseshell Parker fountain pen since he was about 20.[6]

Awards and honours

[edit]
Year Title Award Category Result Ref
2003 The Good Doctor Booker Prize — Shortlisted
2004 Commonwealth Writers Prize Best Book Award (Africa Region) Won [28]
2005 International Dublin Literary Award — Won [29]
2009 Impostor Commonwealth Writers Prize Best Book Award (Africa Region) Shortlisted [30]
2010 In a Strange Room Booker Prize — Shortlisted [31]
2015 Arctic Summer Walter Scott Prize — Shortlisted [32]
Barry Ronge Fiction Prize — Won [33]
2021 The Promise Booker Prize — Won [34]

Works

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Novels

[edit]

Plays

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  • Echoes of Anger (1983)[11]
  • Party for Mother[11]
  • Alive and Kicking[11]
  • The Green’s Keeper[11]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Damon Galgut". Booker Prize. 12 November 1963. Archived from the original on 15 September 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Cornwell, Gareth; Klopper, Dirk; Craig, MacKenzie (2010). The Columbia Guide to South African Literature in English Since 1945. Columbia University Press. p. 95. doi:10.7312/corn13046. ISBN 978-0-231-50381-5.
  3. ^ Kona, Bongani (3 August 2021). "Sharp Read | Breaking the word". New Frame. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  4. ^ Lenta, Margaret (14 September 2007). "Jewish writers and postcolonial choices in South Africa". In Stähler, Axel (ed.). Anglophone Jewish Literature. Routledge. p. 171. doi:10.4324/9780203939222. ISBN 978-1-134-12142-7.
  5. ^ Babb, Andrew (January 2011). "Damon Galgut". World Literature Today. 85: 5. doi:10.1353/wlt.2011.0123. S2CID 245657880. ProQuest 822629948. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021 – via ProQuest.
  6. ^ a b Anderson, Hephzibah (4 September 2021). "Damon Galgut: 'The Booker pulls a nasty little trick on you'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 September 2021. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  7. ^ "Boys High Annual Events" (PDF). p. 28. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 September 2021. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  8. ^ Alter, Alexandra (3 November 2021). "Damon Galgut Wins Booker Prize for 'The Promise'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 3 November 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  9. ^ "'Writing is what I am'". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  10. ^ Kostelac, Sofia (3 July 2015). "The Singularity of Damon Galgut's Small Circle of Beings". Journal of Literary Studies. 31 (3): 73. doi:10.1080/02564718.2015.1083173. ISSN 0256-4718. S2CID 147278190. The question of how exactly Small Circle of Beings should be positioned in relation to Galgut's late-apartheid context is complicated by its dramatisation of events which so clearly resonate with his own life and his childhood battle with cancer. Indeed, at the level of plot, the novella arguably invites us to apply Galgut's biography as the primary framework for our reading,
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Keppen, Julie, ed. (2005). "Galgut, Damon 1963–". Contemporary Authors. Vol. 229. Gale. pp. 132–133. ISBN 0-7876-6709-9. ISSN 0010-7468. Archived from the original on 29 June 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  12. ^ Teems, Scott (17 April 2020), The Quarry (Crime, Mystery, Thriller), Prowess Pictures, Grindstone Entertainment Group, Metalwork Pictures, archived from the original on 13 October 2021, retrieved 4 November 2021
  13. ^ Sobczynski, Peter (17 April 2020). "The Quarry movie review". Archived from the original on 1 October 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  14. ^ Yampolsky, Selma (2007). World Authors, 2000–2005. H. W. Wilson Company. pp. 271–273. ISBN 978-0-8242-1077-9. OCLC 154484284.
  15. ^ "Damon Galgut Bio". British Council. Archived from the original on 1 July 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
  16. ^ Skidelsky, William (22 June 2008). "A fresh eye in the Rainbow Nation". The Observer. Archived from the original on 23 June 2008. Retrieved 16 July 2008.
  17. ^ Russo, Maria (17 December 2010). "Running in Place". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 11 February 2015. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  18. ^ a b Morris, Jan (22 May 2010). "In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  19. ^ Deb, Siddhartha (28 February 2014), “Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut – review“. The Guardian. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  20. ^ Flood, Alison (3 November 2021). "Damon Galgut wins Booker prize with 'spectacular' novel The Promise". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 3 November 2021. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  21. ^ Alter, Alexandra (3 November 2021). "Damon Galgut Wins Booker Prize for 'The Promise'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 3 November 2021. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  22. ^ "Damon Galgut Q&A | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. Archived from the original on 27 October 2021. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  23. ^ "Damon Galgut | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. 12 November 1963. Archived from the original on 15 September 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  24. ^ Allfree, Claire (18 June 2008). "Damon Galgut's end of the rainbow". Metro News. Archived from the original on 14 May 2013. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
  25. ^ Galgut, Damon (6 August 2021). "Damon Galgut: 'After reading Roald Dahl, the world never looked the same'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 October 2021. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  26. ^ "Damon Galgut: 'The Booker pulls a nasty little trick on you'". The Guardian. 4 September 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  27. ^ Hashemzadeh, Kianoosh. "An Interview with Damon Galgut". Web Conjunctions. Archived from the original on 21 May 2013. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
  28. ^ MacDonald, Gayle (3 March 2004). "Itani, Taylor regional winners". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  29. ^ Pauli, Michelle (9 March 2005). "Final ten braced for Impac". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 September 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  30. ^ Ben (18 February 2009). "SA Lit Rules the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize Shortlists". Sunday Times Books LIVE. South Africa. Archived from the original on 25 October 2020. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  31. ^ "At a glance: Man Booker shortlist 2010". BBC News. 12 October 2010. Archived from the original on 15 October 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  32. ^ "2015 Shortlist announced". Walter Scott Prize. 24 March 2015. Archived from the original on 26 March 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  33. ^ Malec, Jennifer (27 June 2015). "Damon Galgut and Jacob Dlamini Win the 2015 Sunday Times Literary Awards". Sunday Times Books Live. South Africa. Archived from the original on 10 November 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  34. ^ "Damon Galgut wins Booker Prize with 'tour de force' novel The Promise". BBC News. 3 November 2021. Archived from the original on 3 November 2021. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  35. ^ Harlin, Tayt (5 June 2009). "Find a Classmate". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  36. ^ Skidelsky, William (24 July 2010). "In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut | Book review". The Observer. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  37. ^ "Arctic Summer". Kirkus Reviews. 14 July 2014. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  38. ^ "The Promise". Kirkus Reviews. 3 March 2021. Archived from the original on 25 September 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
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