Dr Suzanne Joinson

Reader in Creative Writing

About

Dr Suzanne Joinson is Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Chichester. She is an internationally published, award-winning writer and academic. She has published two novels (A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar and The Photographer’s Wife, both Bloomsbury, 2012, 2016), a chapter in A History of English Georgic Writing (Cambridge University Press, 2022), and a memoir, The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things (The Indigo Press, 2024). In addition, she has published a wide range of articles, essays and reviews, and regularly writes for a number of publications including The New York Times, The Guardian and many more.

Her PhD was entitled, Making and Exhibition of Myself: On Life Narratives and Memoir and her research and teaching explore the myriad intersections of Fiction, Life Writing, Creative Nonfiction, Oral History and Visual Narratives. Prior to working in academia, she worked in the Literature Department of the British Council across Russia, China, Europe and the Middle East and as a full-time write.

She is a member of the Folio Academy, was awarded the Goodison Fellowship, National Life Stories, British Library (2020-2022) and the Gwyn E Jones Fellowship at the Museum of English Rural Life/University of Reading (2018-19). Her books are translated into fourteen languages, she was a National Bestseller in the US, won the New Writing Ventures Award (2008) and was longlisted for the IMPAC International Literary Fiction Award (2014).

Professional

Professional Bodies:

National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE)

The Folio Academy

Royal Society of Literature

The English Association (Creative Writing representative on the Higher Education Committee)

The International AutoBiography Association (IABA)

Modules convened:

Creative Nonfiction: Starting with the Self (UG Level 4)

Creative Nonfiction: Writing Lives (UG Level 5)

Short Fiction: Writing the Here and Now (UG Level 6)

Digital Writing: Writing for a Community of Strangers (UG Level 6)

Sources and Transformations (MA, Creative Writing, Level 7)

Team taught:

‘Autofiction’: Literature Now

PhD Supervision:

Long form fiction: literary novels; genre and genre-mixes including spy, crime, travel, historical.

Short form fiction: short stories, autofiction, experimental, international and writing in translation.

Memoir and autobiography: Life Writing, ephemera, integrating oral history and visual narratives.

Hybrid texts and place-based writing: landscape, international, trauma and generational stories.

Research interests:

Long-form literary fiction, creative nonfiction, memoir, autofiction and hybrid texts.

International narratives with strong travel, sense-of place, and landscape themes.

Innovative approaches to re-imagining historical fiction, including blurring genres.

Critical and creative explorations into Life Writing, including integration of Visual Narratives, Oral History and Ephemera-based narratives (for example, hybrid memoirs and essays based on lost photographs, found objects, etc).

Memoir, autobiography and crossovers with counselling and therapeutic practices.

She also has a strong interest in Sussex writing connected to the South Downs, the marginalised coastal strip and rural spaces.

Key Publications

The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things, (Indigo Press, 2024), Memoir.

The Photographer’s Wife (London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2016) novel, ISBN 978-140884078, translated into Chinese (Zhejiang Shanghai Publishers, 2019) and forthcoming Arabic (Jarrous Press, Lebanon, 2021). Reviewed in The New York Times:‘exquisite prose and elaborate systems of metaphor that add to the novel’s oneiric quality.’

A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar, (London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2012). Novel, ISBN 978-1408825143 Longlisted for IMPAC Dublin International Literary Awards, Observer Book of the Year, LA Times Bestseller, National Bestseller (US). Reviewed in The New York Times: ‘an impressive debut, its prose as lucid and deep as a mountain lake.’ Translated and published into: Brazil: Intrensica; Denmark: Turbulenz; The Netherlands: House of Books; France: Presses De La Cité;

Germany: Berlin Verlag; Italy: House of Elliot; Japan: Nishimurashoten; Norway: Vigmostad & Bjorce; Serbia: Laguna; Spain: Roca; China: Zhejiang Shanghai Publishers and more.

Sample of chapters, short stories and reviews

‘Between the Pastoral and the Weald’, A History of English Georgic Writing, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2022). https://eprints.chi.ac.uk/id/eprint/6641/

‘Narrating Oral History’, (London: British Council, 2023) https://eprints.chi.ac.uk/id/eprint/7532/

Review of ‘Image of a Man, A. Belsey, Taylor and Francis, (Online, Taylor and Francis, 2023)

Tandhttps://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/N9ZZX6WMBJR9FPIGSQEQ/full?target=10.1080/08989575.2023.2254161

‘Honeymoon at Richterswil Harbour’, pp 189-199, short story, Still Worlds Turning Anthology, (Belfast: No Alibis Press, 2019) ISBN 978-1999882259.

‘Jasmine and Other Flowers that Make Me Cry’, pp 170-179, short story, True Stories from the World’s Best Writers, (London: Lonely Planet Global Ltd, 2016). ISBN 978-1786571960.

‘In a Caucasian Wonderland,’ pp 196-207, short story, Better than Fiction 2, True adventures from 30 great fiction writers, (London: Lonely Planet Global Ltd, 2015).

‘Reaching Bliss’, pp 191-201, short story, An Innocent Abroad; Life-changing trips from 35 great writers, (London: Lonely Planet Global Ltd, 2014). ISBN 978-1743603604.

‘Constantinople and Patrick Leigh Fermor’, Salgamundi Literary Magazine, Issue 182-183, Spring-Summer 2014 (online version 2015).

‘Hotel Melancholia,’ essay (Aeon Magazine of Literature and Culture, 2015), Available at: https://aeon.co/essays/why-is-the-hotel-room-a-place-of-such-lingering-despair

‘Dirty Talk and Dostoyevsky on the Night Shift’, essay (New York: New York Times, 2015) Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/jobs/talking-dirty-while-reading-dostoyevsky.html

‘Travel, Writing and the Creative Act’, essay (New York: Lithub, 2016) Available at: https://lithub.com/writing-traveling-and-the-creative-act/

‘Theory of Flight’, (London: BBC Radio 4 commission), short story part of Skylines series, first broadcast June 2014 then repeat 2018, available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0460zmx

‘Somebody Else’s Story,’ (London: BBC Radio 3 commission), essay part of I’ve Never Told Anyone This Before series, first broadcast 2014, available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04vd60j

Research Output

Articles

Joinson, S. (2023) Rev. of Image of a Man A. BELSEY, Liverpool University Press, 2020, 262 pp., £90.00, (Hardback), ISBN 9781789620290. a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, 39 (1). pp. 489-492. ISSN 0898-9575 10.1080/08989575.2023.2254161

Joinson, S. (2016) Constantinople: an essay on travel and Patrick Leigh Fermor. Salmagundi.

Joinson, S. (2016) Antlers in the Nanhaizi Milu Park. Raffles magazine.

Joinson, S. (2015) Dirty Talk and Dostoyevsky on the Night Shift. The New York Times.

Book Sections

Joinson, S. (2021) Between the Georgic and the Pastoral: The British Weald. In: A History of English Georgic Writing. Cambridge University Press, pp. 296-315. ISBN 9781009019507 10.1017/9781009019507.018

Joinson, S. (2016) Jasmine and Other Flowers that Make me Cry. In: The Lonely Planet Travel Anthology: True Stories from the World's Best Writers. Lonely Planet Publications, UK and US. ISBN 9781786571960

Joinson, S. (2015) In a Caucasian Wonderland. In: Better than Fiction 2: True Adventures from Great Fiction Writers. Lonely Planet Publications, London, UK and US. ISBN 9781743607497

Joinson, S. (2015) The Middle of the Air. In: #1 Short Story Anthology. Vanguard Editions, UK.