Nick Laird

• Name — Nick Laird • Honorific Suffix — FRSL • Born — 1975 • Birthplace — Cookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland • Education — Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge • Occupation — Novelist, poet • Period — 2005–present • Relatives — Doc Brown (brother-in-law) • Children — 2

Laird was born in Cookstown, County Tyrone, where he attended the local comprehensive school. He then gained entry to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he initially studied Law but switched to English, in which he attained a first-class degree and won the Arthur Quiller-Couch Award for Creative Writing. He went on to work at the law firm Allen & Overy in London for six years, before leaving to concentrate on his writing.

Laird met Zadie Smith at Cambridge University. They married in 2004 in the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge. Smith dedicated her third novel, On Beauty, to "my dear Laird." The couple lived in Rome from November 2006 to 2007 and now live in New York City and Queen's Park, London. They have two children.

To a Fault is Laird's first collection of poems, and was nominated for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. To a Fault was published by Faber and Faber in January 2005.

On Purpose is his follow-up book of poems, published also by Faber and Faber in 2007. The collection further explores the concept of relationships, loosely based on the tract The Art of War by Sun Tzu. The book won the Somerset Maugham Award and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 2008.

Go Giants is Laird's third collection, published by Faber and Faber in 2015.

Laird's fourth collection, published by Faber and Faber in August 2018, was shortlisted for the 2018 T. S. Eliot Prize.

Utterly Monkey was published in May 2005 by Fourth Estate, and by Harper Perennial in the US. It follows the relationship of two childhood friends from Northern Ireland. One of them, Danny, grows up to be a lawyer after attaining an education in London, while the other, Geordie, works as a labourer and does not pursue extensive studies after school. Laird has described Geordie as "more feckless than Danny" and "a kind of a drifter." The novel also explores the ongoing political and military conflict within Northern Ireland known as The Troubles. When asked whether or not Americans can comprehend and identify with the experiences of people in Northern Ireland, Laird replied: "I think they can, but I don't think they do," and cited the "low level of discourse" that he has encountered in regard to this subject when he travels to America.

Review from The New York Times: A blog called The Damp Review figures prominently in Nick Laird's new novel. On it David Pinner, once an art student, now a teacher who dabbles in cultural criticism, writes about "whatever took his fancy. Or didn't," Mr. Laird writes. "He found it easier to write on disappointments. Hatreds, easier still." At the beginning of the book David goes to an art opening for Ruth Marks, a feminist American artist who is in London on a yearlong residency. Ruth was once David's teacher, and they strike up a friendship. But Ruth strikes up more with David's much-younger roommate, James Glover, who plays the innocent to David's cynic. And, as the romance between Ruth and James develops, so does David's anger and unhappiness. Mr. Laird is also a poet, a day job he reveals in sentences like "David realized he'd been unconsciously pushing his nails into his palms, leaving little red falciform marks." The Village Voice also featured the book.

Published in 2017.

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• Collections * * * * * • Anthologies (as contributor) * • List of poems • Title — |Year — |First published — |Reprinted/collected • User — 2015 • La Méditerranée — 2017