Roger King (novelist)

Roger Frank Graham King (born 14 March 1947) is an English novelist and filmmaker.

Roger King
Born (1947-03-14) 14 March 1947
Forty Hill in the London Borough of Enfield, UK
OccupationNovelist, filmmaker, economist
NationalityBritish and American
Website
rogerking.org

Early life and career

King was born on 14 March 1947 in Forty Hill in the London Borough of Enfield. He earned a bachelor's degree in food science from the University of Nottingham, a M.S. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Reading in England, where he was on the faculty until resigning to devote more time to fiction.[1] He was subsequently invited to teach at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria.

While writing his early novels King continued travelling and working in Africa and Asia, usually for UN agencies. In 1990, he was invited to teach creative writing, literature, and screenwriting at Eastern Washington University, and moved to the United States.

In 1991, after completing his third novel, King developed ME Disease.[1] During irregular remissions, he was on the creative writing and English literature faculty at San Francisco State University, the University of New Mexico, and the Warren Wilson MFA Program.

Since 1997 King has lived and written in Leverett, Massachusetts, a small village outside of Amherst. He has received multiple fellowships from Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Novels and critical reception

His first novel, Horizontal Hotel, was published by André Deutsch in 1983. The Irish Times called the book "a searing invocation of modern Africa,"[2] and The Guardian wrote, "All is trembling on the edge of breakdown, yet the writing stays cool; the effect is of a quiet delirium."[3] WorldCat shows it is held in 54 libraries.[4]

Written on a Stranger's Map followed in 1987 and drew on King's experiences working in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The Guardian described it as a novel of "luminous clarity."[5] WorldCat shows it is held in 59 libraries.[6]

His third novel, Sea Level, was published in 1992 and was slightly more successful: WorldCat shows it in 83 libraries[7] According to The New York Times, "this beautifully worked novel is told from the vantage point of a man who has reached the end of everything: his married life; his affair with a shrewd erotic mistress; his career, even the ends of the earth".[8]

A fourth book, A Girl From Zanzibar was published in 2002. It won the BABRA (now NCBR) Award for "The Best Novel of the Year." The New York Times called A Girl From Zanzibar a "brilliantly prescient novel",[9] and O Magazine said "a steady beat of danger pursues the adventurous, money-hungry heroine of Roger King’s intriguing new novel…King is no slouch at weaving global politics into his narrative, from shifty banking to arms dealing, but at heart Marcella’s quest is a traditional but profound one. The pathos of this well-told, frequently surprising story is how hard it is for this beautiful, intelligent 'woman from everywhere, belonging nowhere' to fulfill such fundamental need".[10] According to WorldCat, it is in 162 libraries.[11]

King's newly completed book, an autobiographical novel, titled Love and Fatigue in America, was published in March 2012. According to WorldCat, it is in 168 libraries.[12] Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review,[13] and it has elicited favourable response from others with M.E.[14][15][16][17][18] A more recent review is positive as well.[19]

Film work

King was executive producer of the feature documentary Still, The Children Are Here, made in collaboration with Mira Nair and Dinaz Stafford. The film is set in the remote village of Sadholpara in Northeastern India. He has also written a screenplay adaptation of A Girl From Zanzibar, which is in development. His screenplay of Written on a Stranger's Map won the BBC/Writer's Guild award for best first screenplay.[1]

International work

King has worked in twenty African and Asian countries, primarily for United Nations' agencies. Projects ranged from rice farming and policy in Liberia, resettling ex-guerillas in Zimbabwe, jute in Bangladesh, facilitating popular participation projects, adult literacy, women's savings and microcredit in Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Gambia and Zambia, large scale regional economic development in Pakistan, to evaluating the decollectivisation of agriculture in Inner Mongolia, China.[1] While implementing these projects, King was based in London, England, and Rome, Italy.

Recent international work has included alternative Global Future Scenarios for the World Bank Strategy Department and Afghanistan reconciliation and reconstruction proposals for UN agencies. In 2010–2011 he was the recipient of a Copeland Fellowship in International Development at Amherst College.[20]

Selected bibliography
  • 2012: Love and Fatigue in America. University of Wisconsin Press (254p) ISBN 978-0-299-28720-7
  • 2002: A Girl From Zanzibar. Helen Marx Books/Books and Co., New York
  • 1992: Sea Level. Poseidon (Simon and Schuster), New York
  • 1989: "Swallowing the World," Parnassus, 15 (2), New York
  • 1987: Written on a Stranger's Map. Grafton-Collins, London
  • 1986: (As Leonard Frank) "The Development Game," Granta, 20, "In Trouble Again," Penguin, London
  • 1983: Horizontal Hotel, André Deutsch, London

See also

References
  1. "Roger King". Biography. Archived from the original on 26 August 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  2. The Irish Times, 16 July 1983.
  3. The Guardian, 14 July 1983.
  4. "Horizontal Hotel". WorldCat.
  5. The Guardian, 31 July 1987.
  6. "Written on a Stranger's Map". WorldCat.
  7. "Sea Level". WorldCat.
  8. The New York Times, 26 April 1992.
  9. Ruta, Suzanne. "Benji and Marcella Get Paid." The New York Times. 24 November 2002.
  10. Richardson, Elaina. "Marcella in Search of Herself." O Magazine. 1 November 2002
  11. "Girl from Zanzibar". WorldCat. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  12. "Love and Fatigue in America". WorldCat. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  13. "Love and Fatigue in America". Publisher's Weekly. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  14. "A Conversation with Roger King and Wilhelmina Jenkins". Research 1st Webinar. 13 May 2012. Archived from the original on 14 November 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  15. "Afterword". Research 1st Webinar. 26 September 2012. Archived from the original on 28 August 2013. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  16. Tony Britton (16 May 2012). "Love and Fatigue in America – a new novel by Roger King – reviewed in ME Essential Spring 2010". The ME Association UK. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  17. "Love and Fatigue in America Roger King". ME CFS Forums. 6 April 2012. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  18. "A Conversation with Novelist Roger King". Massachusetts CFIDS/ME & FM Association. 4 August 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  19. Erica Verrillo (22 June 2013). "Book Review: 'Love and Fatigue in America' by Roger King". blogcritics.org. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  20. "Copeland Fellows 2010–2011". Amherst College. Retrieved 21 June 2013.

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