Cal Flyn

Cal Flyn is a Scottish author and journalist.[1]

Early life

Flyn was born in Inverness, Scotland. She attended Charleston Academy, a state secondary school.[2] As a child, she underwent orthopedic surgery to correct proximal femoral focal deficiency affecting the left leg.[3]

Flyn holds an MA in experimental psychology from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and a NCTJ certificate in newspaper journalism from Lambeth College.[4][5]

Career

After graduation, Flyn worked as a reporter for The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph.[2] She left her job in 2012 to work at a dog-sledding kennels in Finnish Lapland.[6] Flyn is the deputy editor of the literary recommendations website Five Books[7]

She was made a MacDowell Fellow in 2019.[8] In 2022, she was declared 'Young Writer of the Year' by The Sunday Times.[9]

She is the author of nonfiction books Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape (2022)[10] and Thicker Than Water: History, Secrets, and Guilt (2016),[11] and has published essays and articles in Granta, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Sunday Times Magazine, and other publications.[12][13][14]

Works

Her first book, Thicker Than Water, tells the story of a distant relative, Angus McMillan, who is believed to have been one of the ringleaders of the Gippsland massacres of Gunaikurnai aboriginal people.[15][16][17] Her second book, Islands of Abandonment, is an exploration of places where nature is reclaiming lands once occupied by humans, such as Plymouth, Montserrat, and Chernobyl.[18][19]

Islands of Abandonment won the John Burroughs Medal for natural history writing.[20] It was also shortlisted for the 2021 Wainwright Prize for writing on global conservation,[21] the 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize[22] and the British Academy Book Prize,[23] among others.

Flyn's third book The Savage Landscape is planned for publication in 2025.[24]

Personal life

Flyn lives in the Orkney Islands.[25]

Selected publications

  • Thicker Than Water: History, Secrets and Guilt: A Memoir (2016, William Collins: ISBN 978-0008126605)
  • Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape (2020, William Collins: ISBN 978-0008329761)

References

  1. ^ Holgate, Andrew (23 January 2022). "The Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer Award shortlist: meet the young literary stars of their generation". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 13 December 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  2. ^ a b Hadjidemetri, Anastasia. "History, Secrets and Guilt: Cal Flyn, author of Thicker Than Water answers Booktopia's Ten Terrifying Questions". Booktopia. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  3. ^ Flyn, Cal (14 September 2014). "I go to the hospital to lengthen my leg. So far! So good!". The Sunday Times Magazine. Retrieved 13 December 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  4. ^ "Cal Flyn". World of Books. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  5. ^ "LMH alumni writers feature in The Times Best Books of 2021". Lady Margaret Hall. 20 November 2021. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  6. ^ Flyn, Cal (20 December 2013). "My winter on a husky farm in the Arctic Circle". The Telegraph Magazine. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  7. ^ "Cal Flyn". Five Books. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  8. ^ "Cal Flyn - Artist". MacDowell. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  9. ^ "Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year: Cal Flyn". The Times. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  10. ^ "Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape". HarperCollins Publishers. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  11. ^ "Thicker Than Water: History, Secrets and Guilt: A Memoir". HarperCollins Publishers. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  12. ^ "Cal Flyn contributor page". Granta. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  13. ^ "Cal Flyn profile". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  14. ^ Flyn, Cal (3 June 2021). "When Pollution Drives Evolution". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  15. ^ Reid, Melanie (28 May 2016). "Books: Thicker Than Water — History, Secrets and Guilt: A Memoir by Cal Flyn". The Times. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  16. ^ Lowry, Elizabeth (2 June 2016). "Thicker Than Water by Cal Flyn review – my ancestor the murderer". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  17. ^ O'Mahony, Ciaran (7 March 2019). "The Scottish explorer who became the butcher of Gippsland". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  18. ^ Jamie, Kathleen (20 January 2021). "How nature reclaims the places humans have abandoned". New Statesman. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  19. ^ McDonald, Sally (16 March 2021). "Wild and abandoned: Writer Cal Flyn charts her journey to the world's disaster zones and ghost towns". The Sunday Post. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  20. ^ "2022 AWARD WINNERS:". John Burroughs Association. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  21. ^ "2021 Shortlist Announcement". Wainwright Prize. 4 August 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  22. ^ "RSL Ondaatje Prize 2022 Shortlist Announced". The Royal Society of Literature. 20 April 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  23. ^ "Shortlist announced for the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding 2021". Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  24. ^ Spanoudi, Melina. "William Collins scoops new book by Islands of Abandonment author Flyn". The Bookseller. Archived from the original on 25 February 2024. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  25. ^ Jana, Rosalind (31 August 2021). "Author Cal Flyn on the Landscapes Left Behind". TOAST Magazine. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
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