HAN SMITH
writer / translator / also teacher
Represented by Ludo Cinelli at Eve White Literary Agency
NOVEL - JUNE 2024
Debut novel PORTRAITS AT THE PALACE OF CREATIVITY AND WRECKING published by John Murray Originals on 20 June 2024.
(Shortlisted for Goldsmiths Prize 2024 / Selected for Guardian Books of the Year 2024)
​(Order here.)
​(Events here.)
(Excellent artwork by Jason Marsden.)
On Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking:
“A kaleidoscopic and beguiling novel, where the meaning of language itself is refracted back to the reader through a funhouse mirror. A singular and thrilling debut that shows what happens when objective truth and meaning are drowned in the shifting river of history and politics.”
- Andrew McMillan, Eric Gregory Award-winning poet and author of Pity and playtime
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“Intimate, intricate, and ultimately irresistible. Smith’s unforgettable style builds a political–personal narrative that resounds to the drumbeat of resistance and rebellion.”
- Ruby Cowling, author of This Paradise, Longlisted for The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2020
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“Eloquently oblique and profoundly empathetic, dredging up meanings from under the river that runs over undesired histories. Han Smith slides round the side of the unsayable by turning language over to its silver side.”
- Selby Wynn Schwartz, author of After Sappho, Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022
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“For all its darkness, this is a novel full of hopeful glitter – and one I know I will return to.”
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- A K Blakemore, author of The Manningtree Witches and The Glutton (in The Guardian)
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“Like being in a hall of mirrors where you think you’ve caught Smith’s eye but it’s just a reflection. When something slips into view between the glass, you get that uncanny feeling you’re staring back at yourself. A mysterious quest of excavation.”
- Jen Calleja, Booker International-longlisted author and translator
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“A strange, intriguing and creepy tale from an exhilarating new voice in fiction.”
- Camilla Grudova, Women’s Prize-longlisted author of Children of Paradise
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“Written with a poetry as defamiliarising as it is rich, Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking is an insightful, affecting and assured debut.”
- Oisín Fagan, author of Nobber and Hostages
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“Arrests and intrigues... What an extraordinary achievement.”
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- Adam Zmith, Winner of the Polari First Book Prize 2022
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“At once a poignant coming of age story and an exploration of how language is shaped by ideology, Portraits is tender and merciless in its slanting look at the history of state violence.”
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- Dr. Abigail Shinn, 2024 Goldsmiths Prize Chair of Judges
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Reviews / Interviews:
​Guardian review by A K Blakemore
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Guardian Best Fiction 2024
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Auraist Best-Written Books of the Century
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New Statesman interview​: “Fiction that takes risks shows how electric our minds can be...”
Auraist interview: “These aspects of style have a political root too: both characters’ estrangement is caused by their context...“
Other work:
Denier published in Lunate
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Syzyzgy wins 2024 London Independent Short Story Prize
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Stress test published in Five Dials
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High-altitude sadness in collaboration with Xavier Mas Craviotto at the 2023 European Poetry Festival
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Gedichtfrage 1 von 7 in collaboration with Hannah Bründl at the 2022 European Poetry Festival
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Mängelexemplare published in In the past the future was better (Cipher Press)
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I am trying to explain these marks here precisely in collaboration with David Spittle at the 2021 European Poetry Festival
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The product ITSELF can be contaminated in collaboration with Ana Seferović at the 2021 European Poetry Festival
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Via del Tramvai longlisted and published in 2020 Brick Lane Bookshop Prize
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Shortlisted for 2020 Bridport Prize (short story)
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Periferia longlisted for 2020 UEA New Forms Award
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Б is for Baikonur published in Untitled: Voices II
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Helgoland / Flügge longlisted for 2020 Desperate Literature Prize
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2019/2020 London Writers Award for Periferia / Castle Wynd (novel)
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Han's myth published in Perverse Magazine
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A history of the world (with wall-to-wall mirror) highly commended in 2019 Interpreter's House poetry competition
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Mängelexemplare shortlisted for 2019 Creative Future Writers' Award
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Cutlery in collaboration with Kirsten Irving at the 2019 Torriano Camarade, London
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Adopt a vortex, LossLit Magazine
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Szelfmagot (in collaboration) for Hungarian Lit Night – Tributes to Attila József at the Hungarian Cultural Centre, London
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Periferia shortlisted for 2018 Mslexia & Galley Beggar Press Novella Prize
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Fragments of mirror, possibly belonging to at Literaturhaus am Inn, Innsbruck
A pigeon/poetry collaboration with Frank Ruf at SJ Fowler's European Poetry Festival, London
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Bodies are not us & collaboration with Iris Colomb at Writers' Centre Kingston / Museum of Futures Visual Literature Exhibition, London
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Errorgardens (for Ingeborg Bachmann) at the Austrian Cultural Forum, London (Illuminations series)
Schmiedeleut’s play at Liars’ League, London
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The bitting for the blade, Litro Magazine
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Reproduction furniture, Litro Magazine
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2017/2018 PLATFORM Bursary for Emerging Writers from Spread the Word, London
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