Shena Mackay's picture
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Shena Mackay


Scotland (b.1944)

Shena Mackay was born in Edinburgh in 1944. She left school at the age of 16 after winning a poetry competition in the Daily Mirror. Her first book, published in 1964 but written when she was still a teenager, consists of two novellas, Dust Falls on Eugene Schlumburger and Toddler on the Run. Her first novel, Music Upstairs (1965), is set in London in the early 1960s.

There was a break in her writing between the novel An Advent Calendar published in 1971 and the collection of short stories Babies in Rhinestones and Other Stories, published in 1983. The novel A Bowl of Cherries (1984) was published by Harvester Press, a small independent publisher in Brighton, on the recommendation of the novelist Iris Murdoch.
 


Genres: Literary Fiction
 
Novels
   Music Upstairs (1965)
   Old Crow (1967)
   An Advent Calendar (1971)
   A Bowl of Cherries (1984)
   Redhill Rococo (1986)
   Dunedin (1991)
   The Orchard on Fire (1996)
   The Artist's Widow (1998)
   Heligoland (2003)
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Collections
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Novellas and Short Stories
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Anthologies edited
   Such Devoted Sisters (1993)
   Friendship (1997)
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Series contributed to
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Books containing stories by Shena Mackay
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London Stories (2013)
edited by
Jerry White
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The Cold Embrace (1966)
And Other Stories
edited by
Alex Hamilton

Award nominations
2003 Women's Prize For Fiction (nominee) : Heligoland
2003 Whitbread Prize for Best Novel (nominee) : Heligoland
2003 Booker Prize (longlist) : Heligoland
1996 Booker Prize (shortlist) : The Orchard on Fire


Shena Mackay recommends
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Rainsongs (2018)
Sue Hubbard
"A compelling story, freighted with heartbreak and loss."
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Never the Bride (2006)
(Brenda and Effie Mysteries, book 1)
Paul Magrs
"A brilliant extravaganza, gripping, ingeniously plotted, and tragically funny, with unforgettable characters."
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The Mysteries of Glass (2004)
Sue Gee
"Profound and lyrical, it's full of light and darkness and the most marvellous description."

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