Milkman (Burns) - Author Bio

Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1962
• Where—Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
• Education—studied Russian, no degree
• Awards—Man Booker Prize
• Currently—lives in East Sussex, England


Anna Burns is the the author of several novels, most famously, Milkman (2018) for which she won the 2018 Man Booker Prize, the first author from Northern Ireland to do so. 

Burns was born in Belfast to a working-class family with seven children. She lived with her aunt nearby, an arrangement not uncommon among large Irish families with small homes and an arrangement that gave Burns quiet time to read after a day with her raucous siblings.

The family was a bookish one, Burns told the UK's Guardian during an interview, and library cards were precious family commodities. Someone was forever taking someone else's card in order to sign out extra books.

Burns left Belfast for London where she studied Russian. She never attained a degree, however. Turning to writing was almost serendipitous. One morning she woke up and began to record her dream in a beautiful sketchbook she'd bought sometime before. One page, then another page; then she began keeping a sort of journal about the day.

In 2002 Burns published her first novel, No Bones; the novel was shortlisted for the (then) Orange Prize. Constructions came next in 2007 and Milkman in 2018.

Four years before Milkman, however, a surgical injury had left Burns with excruciating back pain, and she found herself unable to write. Struggling to make ends meet, she house-sat for various people around England and was forced to depend on food banks. The pain was so bad, she was unsure she would be able to finish Milkman.

When Burns finally completed the novel, it was turned down by several publishers before being taken up by Graywolf Press. Then along came the Man Booker Prize and £50,000. (Adapted from various sources online, primarily The Guardian.)