David Mitchell (author): Difference between revisions

Mitchell's first novel, ''[[Ghostwritten (novel)|Ghostwritten]]'' (1999), takes place in locations ranging from [[Okinawa, Japan|Okinawa]] to [[Mongolia]] to pre-millennial New York City, as nine narrators tell stories that interlock and intersect. It won the [[John Llewellyn Rhys Prize]] (for best work of British literature written by an author under 35) and was shortlisted for the [[Guardian First Book Award]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/nov/06/guardianfirstbookaward1999.gurardianfirstbookaward1|work=The Guardian|title=Readers pick top Guardian books|date=6 November 1999|location=London|first=Fiachra|last=Gibbons}}</ref> His two subsequent novels, ''[[number9dream]]'' (2001) and ''[[Cloud Atlas (novel)|Cloud Atlas]]'' (2004), were both favorablyfavourably received and shortlisted for the [[Booker prize|Man Booker Prize]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/archive|title=Man Booker Prize Archive|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106011610/http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/archive|archive-date=6 January 2012}}</ref>

One segment of ''number9dream'' was adapted as a short film titled ''[[The Voorman Problem]]'' and starring [[Martin Freeman]]. It was nominated for a BAFTA in 2013. <ref>{{cite web|url=https://vimeopro.com/thechasefilms/the-chase-films|title=Link to video|date=21 July 2017 }}</ref>

''[[Utopia Avenue]]'', Mitchell's ninth novel, was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2020, during the first year of the [[Covid 19 pandemic]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BONKDwAAQBAJ|title=Utopia Avenue|last1=Mitchell|first1=David|date=2 June 2020|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |isbn=9781444799446}}</ref> ''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".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Flood|first=Alison|date=2019-09-26|title=David Mitchell announces Utopia Avenue, his first novel in five years|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/26/david-mitchell-announces-utopia-avenue-his-first-novel-in-five-years|access-date=2020-06-24|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Mitchell has a [[stammer]].<!--stammering is the term used by Mitchell--><ref name="prospect180">[http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2011/02/david-mitchell-stammering-kings-speech/ "Lost for words"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120104175240/http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2011/02/david-mitchell-stammering-kings-speech/ |date=4 January 2012 }}, David Mitchell, ''Prospect'' magazine, 23 February 2011, Issue No. 180</ref> tHeHe believes that the film ''[[The King's Speech]]'' (2010) is one of the most accurate portrayals of that experience for an individual.<ref name="prospect180"/> 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."<ref name="prospect180"/> Mitchell is a patron of the [[British Stammering Association]].<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://stammering.org/bsgrevisited.html|title=Black Swan Green revisited|journal=Speaking Out|publisher=British Stammering Association|date=Spring 2011|access-date=30 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111016083015/http://stammering.org/bsgrevisited.html|archive-date=16 October 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Mitchell's son is autistic. In 2013, Mitchell and his wife Yoshida translated a book into English that was written by Naoki Higashida, a 13-year-old Japanese autistic boy, titled ''[[The Reason I Jump: One Boy's Voice from the Silence of Autism]]''.<ref name="TimesReview">{{cite news|last=Tisdale|first=Sallie|title=Voice of the Voiceless|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/books/review/the-reason-i-jump-by-naoki-higashida.html|access-date=1 September 2013|newspaper=New York Times|date=23 August 2013}}</ref> Higashida is said to have learned to communicate using the techniques of [[facilitated communication]] and [[rapid prompting method]]. {{Citation needed|reason=Is there a source for Higashida's use of these exact methods AND for the statement these techniques are discredited? It seems credible, but needs sources. Deleted assertion that methods were discredited, as there is no source. |date=August 2022}}}

* {{cite journal |author=Bentley, Nick |date=2018 |title=Trailing Postmodernism : David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, Zadie Smith's NW, and the Metamodern |journal=English Studies |volume=99 |issue=99:7 |pages=723–43 |doi=10.1080/0013838X.2018.1510611 |s2cid=165906081 |url=https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/4519/1/Trailing%20Postmodernism%20English%20Studies.docx }}

*[https://www.literaturfestival.com/festival/programm/2021/ref%202021/the-art-of-scriptwriting?searchterm=the+art+of+script "The Art of Scriptwriting: David Mitchell on Matrix 4"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211117143423/https://www.literaturfestival.com/festival/programm/2021/ref%202021/the-art-of-scriptwriting?searchterm=the+art+of+script |date=17 November 2021 }}, at the 21. ''[[Berlin International Literature Festival|international literaturefestivalliterature berlinfestival, Berlin]]'', 10 September 2021

[[Category:PostmodernBritish postmodern writers]]

[[Category:People with speech impedimentdisorders]]