- Optic Nerve by María Gainza review: art critic's profound debut Sackville, Amy. 2019. Optic Nerve by María Gainza review: art critic's profound debut. The Guardian, ISSN 0261-3077
- Thinking through Thinking through Fiction: a round table Sackville, Amy; Moss, Sarah; Kavenna, Joanna and Crumey, Andrew. 2018. Thinking through Thinking through Fiction: a round table. New Writing, 15(1), pp. 119-123. ISSN 1479-0726
Amy Sackville
Amy Sackville writes novels, short fiction and other short prose.
Staff details
I am a novelist and prose writer, and I teach on the MA in Creative and Life Writing. My most recent book, Painter to the King (Granta, 2018) focused on the life and work of the painter Diego Velázquez in the court of Philip IV of Spain.
Academic qualifications
- MA Creative and Life Writing, Goldsmiths 2008
- MPhil English Studies, Oxford 2004
- BA English and Theatre Studies, Leeds 2002
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature 2018
Teaching and supervision
I teach on the MA Creative and Life Writing.
I am also available to supervise on the PhD Creative Writing.
Research interests
Broadly speaking, as a reader and a writer, I am fascinated by the interrelation between consciousness(es) and the world, as it is mediated by language; by the structures we are shaped by, and our sense of ourselves and others within them; by the spaces between people and how they are bridged.
My novels are, on the surface, concerned with quite disparate areas of research in terms of subject matter, but I am always thinking about form and formal experiment, the construction of narrative perspective and how it shapes meaning.
Some recurring interests: the history of the novel as a form; modernist fiction; the historical novel and the relationship between history and narrative; ekphrasis and art; intertextuality; writing and place; and the creative process as a field of enquiry and a way of knowing (and not-knowing).
Featured publications
2018:
Painter to the King
Novel, Granta
2021:
'The Stowaway's Tale'
In Refugee Tales Vol. IV, Comma Press
2021:
'In Saint-Paul-de-Vence'
Personal essay, in Rhythmanalysis: Research in Urban Sociology 17
2013:
Orkney
Novel, Granta
2010:
The Still Point
Novel, Portobello
Grants and awards
2013:
Somerset Maugham Award
For Orkney
2010:
John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
For The Still Point
Publications and research outputs
Book
- Painter to the King Sackville, Amy. 2019. Painter to the King. London: Granta. ISBN 9781783783922
- Orkney Sackville, Amy. 2014. Orkney. London: Granta. ISBN 9781847086655
- The Still Point Sackville, Amy. 2010. The Still Point. London: Granta. ISBN 9781846272301
Book Section
- In Saint-Paul-de-Vence Sackville, Amy. 2021. In Saint-Paul-de-Vence. In: Dawn Lyon, ed. Rhythmanalysis: Place, Mobility, Disruption and Performance. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 139-152. ISBN 9781839099731
- The Stowaway's Tale Sackville, Amy. 2021. The Stowaway's Tale. In: David Herd and Anna Pincus, eds. Refugee Tales Volume IV. Manchester: Comma Press. ISBN 9781912697489
Article
- What If Procrastination Is an Essential Part of Our Writing Process? Sackville, Amy. 2021. What If Procrastination Is an Essential Part of Our Writing Process? Literary Hub,
- I am not reading. I am not writing. This is not normal Sackville, Amy. 2020. I am not reading. I am not writing. This is not normal. The Guardian, ISSN 0261-3077
- From polar explorers to frozen dystopias: the best books about ice Sackville, Amy. 2019. From polar explorers to frozen dystopias: the best books about ice. The Guardian, ISSN 0261-3077
Audio
- Riding the Waves Hall, Alan. 2021. Riding the Waves.
- Dog in a Hole Sackville, Amy. 2018. Dog in a Hole.
Digital
- Manifest Sackville, Amy. 2022. Manifest.
Show/Exhibition
- The Cheapside Hoard Sackville, Amy. 2022. The Cheapside Hoard. In: "The Goldsmiths Gallery", New Museum of London, United Kingdom.