Kate Atkinson

Kevin P. Smith (Sheffield Hallam University); Revised By: M. Carmen Gomez-Galisteo (Universidad Isabel I)
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Kate Atkinson arrived upon the literary scene when her debut novel Behind the Scenes at the Museumunexpectedly won the 1995 Whitbread book of the year prize (renamed Costa Award n 2006), beating the favourites, Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sighand Roy Jenkins' Gladstone.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum, one of the dissenting judges of the Whitbread prize commented, is postmodern, “although I don't know if Kate Atkinson knows it”. In fact, Atkinson had previously written a PhD thesis at the University of Dundee on “The post-modern American short story in its historical context”. Although she failed her viva, it is safe to assume that …

3325 words

Citation: Smith, Kevin P., M. Carmen Gomez-Galisteo. "Kate Atkinson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 September 2002; last revised 28 May 2019. [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5191, accessed 29 March 2024.]

5191 Kate Atkinson 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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