Outline (Cusk)

Author Bio
• Birth—1967
• Where—Canada
• Raised—Los Angeles, California, USA
• Education—Oxford University
• Awards—Whitbread Award; Somerset Maughm Award
• Currently—lives in London


Rachel Cusk was born in Canada in 1967 and spent much of her childhood in Los Angeles before finishing her education at St Mary's Convent, Cambridge. She read English at New College, Oxford, and has travelled extensively in Spain and Central America.

She is the author of eight novels, the first of which, Saving Agnes (1993), won the Whitbread First Novel Award. Her 2001 nonfiction exploration of motherhood, A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother, generated considerable controversy. Some women accused Cusk of loathing her own children while others secretly felt the book mirrored their own troubled attitudes. Inspite of—or because of—the controversy, the book has been reprinted numerous times, with Lynn Barber of the UK's The Guardian regarding it as "probably the most powerful book on motherhood ever written."

Her third novel, The Country Life (1997) won the Somerset Maughm Novel Award, while two other novels (see below) were shortlisted for literary prizes. In 2003, Cusk was nominated by Granta magazine as one of 20 Best of Young British Novelists.

Cusk is divorced from her second husband, photographer Adrian Clarke, with whom she has two daughters, Albertine and Jessye. Cusk wrote in detail about the marriage in Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation (2012); a review of the book by Camilla Long won Long the "Hatchet Job of the Year" award.

Books
1993 - Saving Agnes (Whitbread First Novel Award)
1995 -The Temporary
1997- The Country Life (Somerset Maughm Novel Award)
2001 - A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother
2003 - The Lucky Ones (shortlisted, Whitbread Award)
2005 - In the Fold
2006 - Arlington Park (shortlisted, Orange Prize)
2009 - The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy
2009 - The Bradshaw Variations
2012 - Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation
2014 - Outline
(Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 1/15/2015.)