Patrick Flanery

Born 1975 Fresno, CA (USA)

Flanery was born in California but grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. Flanery has taught at the University of Reading and Queen Mary University of London. His first novel Absolution was short-listed for several major European literary awards. His relationship with the Midwest has been ambiguous. In a Daily Beast interview, Flanery said that as a child in Omaha, he always thought of himself as a transplanted Californian. He found Omaha to be "far from anywhere" and was always anxious to leave. But he feels that "in retrospect I can see how much I must be a product of the Midwest, or at least of certain tendencies in Midwestern manners." He reflected that "a childhood in the provinces can be a good thing for a writer."

His 2016 novel I am no one received stellar reviews for its evocation of the creepy intrusiveness that accompanies the surveillance culture of the digital age.

Places Lived

Omaha, NE
Oxford, ENGLAND
London, ENGLAND

Author Of

Fiction
Nonfiction

Keywords

Literary fiction; Novels; Nonfiction Essays; Reviews;

Education

Master's Degree, Oxford University, Oxford, ENGLAND

Occupation

Writer
Professor

Places Worked

University of Reading, ENGLAND
Queen Mary University of London, ENGLAND

Honors

Spear's/Laurent Perrier Best First Book Award
International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize
The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize
Author's Club Best First Novel Award
Le Prix du Premier Roman Étranger
Guardian First Book Award
Desmond Elliott Prize

Associations

His father Jim Flanery, was metropolitan editor of the Omaha World Herald.

Bibliography

Absolution. 2012.
Fallen Land. 2013.
I Am No One. 2016.

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