English Literature->Prose & Novel->By Period->Contemporary

This is the official homepage of Mark Haddon, the children’s book author whose first adult-targeted book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award in 2003. Haddon is being hailed as one of Britain's up-and-coming authors, for not only his versatile talents in telling stories and writing poetry for the young and the old, but also drawing colorful illustrations that accentuate his writings.

His homepage clearly depicts Haddon's sense of style, with its creative layout, fun features, and easy-to-use graphics. The website is divided into two main categories given the titles of “art” and “life.” In the former, the user can look at both drawings/paintings Haddon has done himself and also selections he has made of other people’s illustrations. “Art” also has a sub-section entitled “writing,” in which a variety of information concerning Haddon's writing, for example, short passages/summaries of his books (children+adult fiction), personal journal entries, interviews concerning his writings, etc. In the “life” section of his homepage, Haddon provides personal photos of his life, ways to contact him, and even a map showing where he lives.

The webpage itself is extremely easy to use, with bright colors and large category titles. Its interesting contents and, more importantly, Haddon’s personal flair (which can be easily seen through his extremely witty explanatory captions) guarantees a great cybersource for both Haddon’s fans and also those who have not yet had the chance to read his books.

URL : http://www.markhaddon.com

Keyword(s) : 20th century, Illustrations, Detective and mystery stories, English, Fiction, Men authors, English, Young adult literature, Contemporary fiction, Mark Haddon

General Resources->Digital Repositories
English Literature->Prose & Novel->By Period->Contemporary

Masterpiece Theater is a prime-time drama series on the American channel PBS which is famous for its adaptations of the world’s finest classic and contemporary literary works. In 2003, for its 32nd season, its chosen text was Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, and this site is dedicated to not only introducing the television production, but also providing some more details and information on the work itself.

The site is very fun and engaging, and a fan of the book will have a great time surfing the many intriguing sublinks, which contain an interview with the author, a commentary by the renowned NYT columnist Russell Baker, a detailed description on how the story was adapted into film, a timeline drawing some noteworthy events, a slang dictionary that explains some words used in the text/film, and even pictures/still shots of the actors and the enacted scenes.

The colors of the site are bright and the typography is vivid, which helps the user have a great time looking around. The information level might not be that high, but it’s a great opportunity to actually visualize the images you had about the printed text and to see how the boundaries between culture genres are disappearing. All in all, it’s just a fun site to visit if you are a fan of Smith’s ingenious work, White Teeth.

URL : http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/teeth/index.html

Keyword(s) : Zadie Smith, White Teeth, PBS, Masterpiece theater, Film adaptations, TV Production

English Literature->Prose & Novel->By Period->Contemporary

Subcategory of Postcolonialweb (http://www.postcolonialweb.org/index.html)

The contents of this site are divided into Essays on his works, Visual images, Themes, Characterization, Setting, Imagery and Narrative.

Biographical information is written by George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown University. It is brief but it is a good start to know who Graham Swift is and about his best books.

The site contains critical reception published in various book review sections. You can find the critical reception about Learning to Swim / Out of This World / The Sweet Shop Owner / Shuttlecock / Waterland and learn how the public reacted to Swift's works when they were released.
If you are more interested in the specific analysis of each book, go directly to the Works site. It deals with The Sweet-Shop Owner, 1980; Shuttlecock, 1981; Learning to Swim and Other Stories, 1982; Waterland, 1983; Out of this World, 1988; Ever After, 1991; and Last Orders, 1996.
The section of Literary relations contains rich contents to connect Graham Swift with other great writers in literary history such as Dickens, Wordsworth and Rushdie. Therefore, if you are looking for the exact information on how Swift reflects what he learned from the literary background, this section will really be helpful.
In the History section, unfortunately, most of the content deals with the history revealed in Waterland, which tells the history of three generations of a brewery family and their relations with the town and the development of the town as the time goes by.
Are you looking for Themes in a specific work of Graham Swift? Then go to Themes and you'll find out a starting point to develop.

This site is well constructed but it is not possible to search keywords or phrases within the sites, which means you have to surf the sites until you find what you want.

URL : http://www.postcolonialweb.org/uk/gswift/gsov.html

Keyword(s) : Contemporary British Writer, Graham Swift, Last Orders, Postmodernism, Critical, Critical theory

English Literature->Prose & Novel->By Period->Contemporary

This is the official website for Ian McEwan, who was born on 21 June in 1948 in Aldershot, Hampshire, England and the author of 'The Cement Garden', 'The Child in Time', 'Enduring Love', and 'Atonement'.

The site has the approval and cooperation of McEwan himself, provides a full bibliography of McEwan's works and a comprehensive list of reviews and criticism of his works. Interestingly, Appearances and Events section provides advanced warnings of McEwan's public appearances, whilst Interview section provides transcripts of interviews given by the author (in order of appearance). Other fearues in this website are links to Featured Item Blog and a Discussion Board.

This website is maintained by Ryan Roberts, who built and has updated JulianBarnes.com and Jamesfenton.com. These three are all contemporary, influential British writers and Ryan Roberts uses similar but simple design for constructing the websites, so navigate all of these useful academic resources.

URL : http://www.ianmcewan.com/

Keyword(s) : Contemporary British Writer, Postmodernism, Atonment, News, Booker Prize, Authors Interviews, Audio-visual materials

English Literature->Prose & Novel->Ethnics->Others
English Literature->Prose & Novel->By Period->Contemporary

This is an interview of Kazuo Ishiguro that took place in October, 2000 with January Magazine, a literary magazine published on the Internet.

Here Kazuo Ishiguro, the award-winning author of Remains of the Day, starts his interview here with talk about another one of his best-selling novel When We Were Orphans. He also conveys his thoughts on the narrators in his books, the film adaptation process of his works, his concern for his readers, the forces behind his literary success, and his opinion on the “globalization” and subsequential commercialization of the book market.

Ishiguro is very candid and frank in his way of expressing his opinion, and this interview enables the reader get a fresh intake on the author’s point of view and mindset on the world. A helpful resource for someone who is studying the British writer Ishiguro. (Also, the January Magazine itself is a great electronic magazine that has interesting interviews with writers and insightful book reviews.)

URL : http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/ishiguro.html

Keyword(s) : Kazuo Ishiguro, When we were orphans, Remains of the day, Contemporary British writer, Booker prize, Japanese, Interviews