Melvin Burgess

Alison Waller

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born c. 25 Apr 1954
Activity c. 1990-c.

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Children's/Young Adult writer

Resources

Burgess' Works

Save to Bookshelf

Melvin Burgess has made a powerful name for himself in the world of children’s and young adult literature, emerging in the 1990s as the author of a succession of critically acclaimed novels and as a vocal advocate for his young readership. Although he began writing for younger children, he is best known for his controversial teenage fiction, most notably the Carnegie Medal and Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize winner

Junk

(1996), which explored adolescent encounters with heroin in 1980s Bristol. Burgess is a versatile author whose work is often distinguished by an inventive approach to genre, form and narrative, and his success is partly due to a desire to push boundaries. Burgess’s journalistic origins are reflected in regular press interviews and public appearances, while an…

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2976 words

Citation: Waller, Alison. "Melvin Burgess". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 June 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12754, accessed 22 November 2024.]