Last updated: 03 November 2009
James Hawes is one Britain's foremost contemporary comic novelists, and also a scholar on Kafka.
James Hawes was born in 1960. He attended Hertford College in Oxford; during his time as an undergraduate he was able to handle the original manuscript of Kafka's The Castle. After spells of teaching in Spain and working as an archaeologist in Wales, he returned to academia to study for a PhD.
Hawes studied Nietzsche and Kafka at University College, London in 1987 and after graduating lectured in Ireland between 1989 and 1991 before moving to Swansea University. He published his first novel A White Merc With Fins in 1996, which was closely followed a year later by Rancid Aluminium.
The latter was developed into a film, starring Rhys Ifans and Sadie Frost, but gained little praise from critics and audiences alike. The experience led to Hawes writing his fourth novel White Powder, Green Light (2002).
He has also had work published on his doctorate topic, notably Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life and Excavating Kafka, both published in 2008. His novel, My Little Armalite, was also published in the same year.
Hawes has formerly lived in Cardiff. In 2008 he took up the post of senior lecturer in creative writing at Oxford Brookes University.
Selected bibliography
- A White Merc With Fins (1996)
- Rancid Aluminium (1997)
- Dead Long Enough (2000)
- White Powder, Green Light (2002)
- Excavating Kafka (2008)
- My Little Armalite (2008)
