Marina Warner


Marina Warner

Warner in 2017
Warner in 2017
BornMarina Sarah Warner
(1946-11-09) 9 November 1946 (age 77)
Paddington, Middlesex, England
OccupationHistorian, mythographer, novelist, lecturer, professor
Alma materLady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Notable awardsMythopoeic Award
Rose Mary Crawshay Prize
National Book Critics Circle Award (Criticism)
Holberg Prize
British Academy Medal
Spouse
(m. 1971; div. 1980)

Johnny Dewe Mathews
(m. 1981; div. 1997)

Graeme Segal
Website
marinawarner.com

Dame Marina Sarah Warner, CH, DBE, FRSL, FBA (born 9 November 1946) is an English historian, mythographer, art critic, novelist and short story writer. She is known for her many non-fiction books relating to feminism and myth. She has written for many publications, including The London Review of Books, the New Statesman, Sunday Times, and Vogue.[1] She has been a visiting professor, given lectures and taught on the faculties of many universities.[2]

She resigned from her position as professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex in 2014, sharply criticising moves towards "for-profit business model" universities in the UK,[3][4][5] and is now Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London.[6] In 2017, she was elected president of the Royal Society of Literature (RSL), the first time the role has been held by a woman since the founding of the RSL in 1820.[7][8][9] She has been a Distinguished Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, since 2019.[10]

In 2015, having received the prestigious Holberg Prize, Warner decided to use the award to start the Stories in Transit project, a series of workshops bringing international artists, writers and other creatives together with young migrants living in Palermo, Sicily.[11][12]

  1. ^ Zeljka Marosevic, "Critical Thinking #5: Marina Warner", Prospect, 8 May 2014.
  2. ^ "Other activities" Archived 24 April 2018 at the Wayback Machine, MarinaWarner.com; accessed 1 January 2015.
  3. ^ Marina Warner, "Why I Quit", London Review of Books, 11 September 2014.
  4. ^ Marina Warner, "Learning My Lesson",London Review of Books, 19 March 2015.
  5. ^ Jonathan Brown, "Marina Warner compares UK university managers to 'Chinese communist enforcers'", The Independent, 3 September 2014.
  6. ^ "Celebrated author and academic Marina Warner joins Birkbeck", bbk.ac.uk, 29 September 2014.
  7. ^ "Royal Society of Literature elects Marina Warner as its first female President", Press Release, The Royal Society of Literature, 2017.
  8. ^ "First woman boss for RSL", BookBrunch, 17 March 2017.
  9. ^ "Professor Marina Warner elected first female President of the Royal Society of Literature", Birkbeck, University of London, 6 April 2017.
  10. ^ "Professor Dame Marina Warner". All Souls College, University of Oxford. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  11. ^ "Stories in Transit, People". Retrieved 10 June 2021.
  12. ^ "The Holberg Prize Names British Storyteller and Fairytale Critic Marina Warner as 2015 Laureate", Press Release, Oxford University Press, 12 March 2015.