David Mitchell | |
|---|---|
 Mitchell in 2006 | |
| Born | David Stephen Mitchell (1969-01-12)12 January 1969 (age 56) Southport, England |
| Occupation | Novelist, television writer, screenwriter |
| Education | University of Kent |
| Period | 1999–present |
| Notable works | number9dream Cloud Atlas |
| Notable awards | John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 1999Ghostwritten |
| Spouse | Keiko Yoshida |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | |
| www | |
David Stephen Mitchell (born 12 January 1969) is an English novelist, screenwriter, and translator.
He has written nine novels, two of which,number9dream (2001) andCloud Atlas (2004), were shortlisted for theBooker Prize. He has also written articles for several newspapers, most notably forThe Guardian. He has translated books aboutautism from Japanese to English.
He was elected aFellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2013.[1]
Mitchell was born inSouthport in Lancashire (nowMerseyside), England, and raised inMalvern, Worcestershire. He was educated atHanley Castle High School. At theUniversity of Kent, he earned a degree in English andAmerican Literature, followed by anM.A. inComparative Literature.
Mitchell lived inSicily for a year. He moved toHiroshima, Japan, where he taught English to technical students for eight years, before returning to England. There he could live on his earnings as a writer and support his pregnant wife.[2]
Mitchell's first novel,Ghostwritten (1999), takes place in locations ranging fromOkinawa toMongolia to pre-millennial New York City, as nine narrators tell stories that interlock and intersect. It won theJohn Llewellyn Rhys Prize (for best work of British literature written by an author under 35) and was shortlisted for theGuardian First Book Award.[3] His two subsequent novels,number9dream (2001) andCloud Atlas (2004), were both favourably received and shortlisted for theMan Booker Prize.[4]
In 2003, he was selected as one ofGranta's Best of Young British Novelists.[5] In 2007, Mitchell was listed amongTime magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World.[6]
In 2012, hismetafictional novelCloud Atlas (again, with multiple narrators), was adapted asa feature film of the same name.
One segment ofnumber9dream was adapted as a short film titledThe Voorman Problem and starringMartin Freeman. It was nominated for a BAFTA in 2013.[7]
In addition to novels, Mitchell has written opera libretti in recent years.Wake, with music byKlaas de Vries, was based on the 2000Enschede fireworks disaster. It was performed by the Dutch Nationale Reisopera in 2010.[8] He created the opera,Sunken Garden, with Dutch composerMichel van der Aa; it was premiered in 2013 by theEnglish National Opera.[9]
Several of Mitchell's book covers were created by design duo Kai and Sunny.[10] Mitchell has also collaborated with the duo, by contributing two short stories to their art exhibits in 2011 and 2014.[citation needed]
Mitchell's sixth novel,The Bone Clocks, was published in 2014.[11] In an interview inThe Spectator, Mitchell said that the novel has "dollops of the fantastic in it", and is about "stuff between life and death".[12]The Bone Clocks was longlisted for the2014 Man Booker Prize[13] and won theWorld Fantasy Award.[14]
Mitchell was the second author to contribute to theFuture Library project. He delivered his bookFrom Me Flows What You Call Time on 28 May 2016.[15][16]
Utopia Avenue, Mitchell's ninth novel, was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2020, during the first year of theCOVID-19 pandemic.[17]Utopia Avenue tells the "unexpurgated story" of a British band of the same name, who emerged from London's psychedelic scene in 1967 and was "fronted by folk singer Elf Holloway, guitar demigod Jasper de Zoet and blues bassist Dean Moss".[18]
Mitchell's entire body of fictional works feature multiple recurring characters and themes that together form an interconnected fictional world, which Mitchell refers to as his 'macronovel'.[19]
Following the release ofthe 2012 film adaptation ofCloud Atlas, Mitchell began work as a screenwriter withLana Wachowski (one ofCloud Atlas' three directors). In 2015, Mitchell contributed plotting and scripted scenes for the second season of theNetflix seriesSense8 bythe Wachowskis. They had adapted the novel for a TV series, and together withAleksandar Hemon, they wrote the series finale.[20] Mitchell had signed a contract to write season three of the series, but Netflix cancelled the show.[21]
In August 2019, it was announced that Mitchell would continue his collaboration with Lana Wachowski and Hemon to write the screenplay forThe Matrix Resurrections.[22]
After another stint in Japan, Mitchell and his wife, Keiko Yoshida, live inArdfield, County Cork, Ireland, as of 2018[update]. They have two children.[23] In an essay forRandom House, Mitchell wrote:[24]
I knew I wanted to be a writer since I was a kid, but until I came to Japan to live in 1994 I was too easily distracted to do much about it. I would probably have become a writer wherever I lived, but would I have become the same writer if I'd spent the last six years in London, orCape Town, orMoose Jaw, on an oil rig or in the circus? This is my answer to myself.
Mitchell has astammer.[25] He believes that the filmThe King's Speech (2010) is one of the most accurate portrayals of that experience for an individual.[25] He said, "I'd probably still be avoiding the subject today had I not outed myself by writing a semi-autobiographical novel,Black Swan Green, narrated by a stammering 13-year-old."[25] Mitchell is a patron of theBritish Stammering Association.[26]
Mitchell's and Yoshida's son is severely autistic.[27] Mitchell says that to be the parent of a child with autism, "you have to become a stronger, kinder, more compassionate, more patient, tougher, clear-sighted person", and it is accompanied by a gift, "real enlightenment about the human condition and the human heart".[28] In 2013, they translated a book into English that was written byNaoki Higashida, a 13-year-old Japanese autistic boy, titledThe Reason I Jump: One Boy's Voice from the Silence of Autism.[29] Mitchell called the book "a revelatory godsend",[28] providing both practical advice and leading him to think of their son having greater agency than he had previously thought, which helped their son.[30][27] Initially, his wife translated parts of the book out loud for him at the kitchen table,[27] and then they translated the book informally to give to their son's teachers and care-givers; however, Mitchell's agent and editor thought it might have a wider audience, leading to a formal translation.[30]
In 2017, Mitchell and his wife translated a second book by Higashida,Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8: A Young Man's Voice from the Silence of Autism.[31]
Novels
Novellas
Short stories
| Title | Publication | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| "Mongolia" | New Writing 8 (1999) | Incorporated intoGhostwritten |
| "The January Man" | Granta 81 (Spring 2003) | Incorporated intoBlack Swan Green |
| "What You Do Not Know You Want" | McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories, ed.Michael Chabon (2004) | - |
| "Acknowledgments" | Prospect (October 2005) | Read online |
| "Hangman" | New Writing 13 (2005) | Incorporated intoBlack Swan Green |
| "Preface" | The Daily Telegraph (29 April 2006) | - |
| "Dénouement" | The Guardian (25 May 2007) | Read online |
| "Judith Castle" | The Book of Other People, ed.Zadie Smith (2007) | - |
| "The Massive Rat" | The Guardian (31 July 2009) | Read online |
| "An Inside Job" | Fighting Words, ed.Roddy Doyle (2009) | - |
| "Character Development" | Freedom: Short Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (2009) | - |
| "Muggins Here" | The Guardian (13 August 2010) | Read online |
| "Earth Calling Taylor" | Financial Times (30 December 2010) | Read online |
| "The Siphoners" | I'm With the Bears: Short Stories from a Damaged Planet (2011) | - |
| "The Gardener" | Kai & Sunny exhibitionThe Flower Show (June 2011) | - |
| "In the Bike Sheds" | We Love This Book (Summer 2011) | - |
| "Lots of Bits of Star" | Kai & Sunny exhibitionCaught by the Nest (September 2013) | - |
| "Variations on a Theme by Mister Donut" | Granta 127 (Spring 2014) | - |
| "The Right Sort" | Twitter (July 2014) | Incorporated intoSlade House |
| "My Eye on You" | Kai & Sunny exhibitionWhirlwind of Time (March 2016) | - |
| "All Souls Day" | Jealous Saboteurs,Francis Upritchard (2016) | Incorporated intoBlack Swan Green |
| "A Forgettable Story" | Silkroad, Cathay Fiction Anthology (July 2017) | - |
| "Repeats" | Freeman's 5 (October 2018) | - |
| "If Wishes Was Horses" | The New York Times Magazine (12 July 2020) | Read online |
| "By Misadventure" | The European Review of Books (May 2021) | - |
| "U-Turn If You Want To" | The Spectator (17 December 2022) | Read online |
Operalibrettos
Selected articles
Other
