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Richard James Beard (born 12 January 1967) is an English novelist, non-fiction writer and teacher born in Swindon, England. He is Director of The National Academy of Writing in London.
Contents
Novels
Beard's first novel, X20, A Novel of Not Smoking, an exploration of "the nature of human frontiers, the boundaries between ego and intimacy". was published by HarperCollins in 1996, and in 1997 was a New York Times Summer Reading Selection. His second novel Damascus, published in 1998, investigates "the leap of faith that transmutes ordinary life into the condition of ecstasy, the condition of being wholly and transcendentally in love", and was a New York Times Notable Book in 1999. Both these novels are influenced by the principles of the OuLiPo. His other novels include The Cartoonist (2000) which uses 'an artificial, Oulipo-type constraint to illustrate a real-life constraint on the imagination', and Dry Bones (2004), a study of "the big issues of personal accountability and civic responsibility". More recently, he has published two retellings of biblical stories. Lazarus is Dead, published in 2011, which retraces the relationship between Jesus and Lazarus, is described as "a shining example of the gospel untruth". Acts of the Assassins, published in 2015, "the story of Jesus's death and resurrection, and the subsequent martyrdom of all the disciples, one by one" was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize the same year.
Non-fiction
His first work of non-fiction, Muddied Oafs, The Last Days of Rugger (2003) traces the changes to the game of rugby union in the wake of professionalisation, reflecting "in an elegiac, fascinating and insightful book that rugby, with its emphasis on team-work and a stoical acceptance of pain and rejection, is a good preparation for life". It was longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. Manly Pursuits (2006), retitled for the paperback edition as How To Beat the Australians, tells of how "his sense of athletic inferiority lead him to travel to the Sydney suburb of Manly to examine what makes Australians so competitive". Becoming Drusilla, the story of long-time friend Dru who underwent gender reassignment, was published by Harvill Secker in 2008, was reviewed by the Mail'. All these non-fiction works contain elements of autobiography and travel writing.
Other
Beard was shortlisted for the 2008 BBC National Short Story Prize and longlisted for the 2010 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. His short stories have appeared in Granta, Prospect and have been recorded for BBC Radio 4. In 1997 and 2015 he received an Arts Council Authors Award and in 2000 was the recipient of a grant from the K Blundell Trust. He has been selected as a writer-in-residence at Gladstone's Library.