Jeanette winterson author biography example

Jeanette Winterson Biography

Born in Manchester, England, Jeanette Winterson is the author of more than twenty books, including the national bestseller Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, and The Passion. She has won many prizes including the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the E. M. Forster Award, and the Stonewall Award.

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“I didn’t intend to write a memoir. I was on a personal search for my biological mother, which I hadn’t intended to do either. You know what it’s like, the big things in life you never plan: you micromanage everything, and then the big things come along, and you never saw them, you never expected them. And that’s how it is.”

In February 2013, Broad Street had the rare opportunity to interview Jeanette Winterson, revered author of multiple novels, including the widely popular Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.  She had just published a memoir, Why Be Happy When You Could BeNormal?–and her biography is far from normal.The adopted daughter of Pentecostal parents in Accrington, England, Winterson grew up with a love for books and reading. After leaving home at sixteen, she went on to attend Oxford University, where she wrote her first novel at age twenty-three.

Chad Luibl sat down with Ms. Winterson after her presentation at the AWP Conference in Boston, and they covered everything from the writing of her memoir to her love for her cats, and the changes she has undergone as a writer throughout the years. The full interview is in the sold-out debut issue of Broad Street, but we present it here, specially formatted for online reading.  You don’t want to miss it!

Sample some of the conversation here, then read the full interview:  “It’s Always Some Battle.”

BROAD STREET: Was the writing process different with a semi­autobiographical novel, such as Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, as opposed to an entirely autobio­graphical memoir?

WINTERS: No. I’ve never separated out the me that I am in the books that I write. I almost always write in the first person. It pleases me to do that. Ev­erything that we write passes through us — there’s nowhere else for it to pass. So it doesn’t mat­ter whether you are writing about your

English writer (born 1959)

Jeanette WintersonCBE FRSL (born 27 August 1959) is an English author.

Her first book, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was a semi-autobiographical novel about a lesbian growing up in an English Pentecostal community. Other novels explore gender polarities and sexual identity and later ones the relations between humans and technology. She broadcasts and teaches creative writing. She has won a Whitbread Prize for a First Novel, a BAFTA Award for Best Drama, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the E. M. Forster Award and the St. Louis Literary Award, and the Lambda Literary Award twice. She has received an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to literature, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her novels have been translated to almost 20 languages.

Early life and education

Winterson was born in Manchester and adopted by Constance and John William Winterson on 21 January 1960. She grew up in Accrington, Lancashire, and was raised in the Elim Pentecostal Church. She was raised to become a Pentecostal Christian missionary, and she began evangelising and writing sermons at the age of six.

By the age of 16, Winterson had come out as a lesbian and left home. She soon after attended Accrington and Rossendale College, and supported herself at a variety of odd jobs while studying English at St. Catherine's College, Oxford (1978–1981).

Career

After she moved to London, she took assorted theatre work, including at the Roundhouse, and wrote her debut novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, a semi-autobiographical story about a sensitive teenage girl rebelling against convention. One job Winterson applied for was as an editorial assistant at Pandora