Ali Smith

Born in Inverness, Ali Smith’s first published book was Free Love and Other Stories (1995), which won the Saltire First Book of the Year Award. From this successful debut, her career continued to climb – her 2001 novel Hotel World, for instance, has received much critical acclaim, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Hotel World was adapted for the stage and performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2007. Smith recently returned to short stories with The First Person and Other Stories (2008), an emotional and funny exploration of storytelling. ‘She's a genius’, said Alain de Botton of Smith; ‘genuinely modern in the heroic, glorious sense’.

Interesting facts on Smith can be read in the Guardian, as well as an interview with her. For Granta she has written A Portrait of my Father.

Photograph by Sarah Wood