Hello.
Dr. Jenni Fagan is an award-winning novelist, poet, screenwriter and artist.
Author of four fiction novels (with a fifth due to be published in 2026) one non-fiction memoir Ootlin, and eight poetry collections.
A collaboration with The Macallan published in 2024, saw her write 200 poems creating a book called Heart of the Spirit selecting moments of key history for The Macallan. Bound in leather and encased in a hand-crafted oak wooden case with illustrations by artist Javi Aznarez, animations by Pixar studios, with poetry readings by Fagan have gone onto travel the world, celebrating The Macallan..
Fagan’s work is in translation in ten languages. The New York Times Book Review described her as the Patron Saint of Literary Street Urchins, covering three of her fiction novels substantially, alongside two front covers.
Multiple award lists include: Granta Best of Young British Novelist - a once in a decade accolade, Scottish Author of the Year in 2016, alongside lists for the Desmond Elliott, Encore, James Tait Black, Sunday Times Short Story Award, Gordon Burn Prize, BBC International Short Story Prize, twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Dr. Jenni Fagan concluded a PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2020, becoming a Dr. of Philosophy.
Her play adaptation of The Panopticon saw a sell out run with National Theatre of Scotland. Her aria and script The Narcissistic Fish became a short film for Scottish National Opera. She made her Directorial debut for her short script Heart of Glass, which screened on BBC 4. Jenni is currently adapting The Blade Artist by Irvine Welsh, as a six part television series, The Panopticon as a twelve part series and Hex as a film script. Luckenbooth is under option to become a long running tv series.
Dr. Jenni Fagan grew up in the local authority care system for 16 years, before spending several years in homeless accommodation. She has moved over forty-six times and spent her teens and early twenties playing in punk and then grunge bands. She has been a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellow in Grez, France, a Gavin Wallace Fellow as Poet in Residence at Summerhall where she engraved poetry onto bones and installed her poems around the building, Lewisham Hospital poet working in the Neo-natal unit and archives, Norfolk Blind Association, also a University of Edinburgh Writer in Residence, Arvon Tutor and she has worked with blind and visually impaired writers, people in prison or secure facilities, among other vulnerable groups. Fagan was a poetry lecturer at Strathclyde University, also teaching fiction at The University of Edinburgh. She is a member of Liberty, and was most recently made a Royal Literary Fellow, in 2023.
Prior residencies at Shakespeare and Company in Paris, saw her writing several poetry collections there, it is her favourite place to read and she considers it one of her literary homes.
A solo exhibition of her artwork was held in Autumn 2023, at Gleneagles Hotel, seeing all of her paintings sell out. She is currently working on a new exhibition. Her poetry bone sculptures are on permanent display at Summerhall, in Edinburgh.
Fagan has just finished her fifth fiction novel, which will be published in 2026 with all prior fiction novels published by Hutchinson Heinemann, comprising a box set with all new covers. She has recently returned from New Zealand where she was on residency supported by the NZ British Council for the Verb Wellington festival, spending time on an uninhabited island, also working with the poet essa may ranipiri, this exchange also included teaching and workshops in the Scottish Highlands at Moniack Mhor.
Ootlin is Jenni Fagan’s recent non-fiction memoir, it is published in hardback in the UK, with paperback due next year, it will be published in France in February 2025.
Like A Swan’s Neck on the Butcher’s Block, her seventh poetry collection, was published in 2024.