David Mitchell (author)

David Mitchell
David Mitchell, 2006
Born	(1969-01-12) 12 January 1969 (age 48) Southport, England, United Kingdom
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of Kent
Period	1999-present
Notable works	Ghostwritten, number9dream, Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, The Bone Clocks, Slade House
Notable awards	John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 1999 Ghostwritten

David Stephen Mitchell (born 12 January 1969) is an English novelist. He has written seven novels, two of which, number9dream (2001) and Cloud Atlas (2004), were shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Mitchell was born in Southport in Lancashire (now Merseyside), England, and raised in Malvern, Worcestershire. He was educated at Hanley Castle High School and at the University of Kent, where he obtained a degree in English and American Literature followed by an M.A. in Comparative Literature.

Mitchell lived in Sicily for a year, then moved to Hiroshima, Japan, where he taught English to technical students for eight years, before returning to England, where he could live on his earnings as a writer and support his pregnant wife.

Mitchell's first novel, Ghostwritten (1999), moves around the globe, from Okinawa to Mongolia to pre-Millennial New York City, as nine narrators tell stories that interlock and intersect. The novel won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (for best work of British literature written by an author under 35) and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. His two subsequent novels, number9dream (2001) and Cloud Atlas (2004), were both shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2003, he was selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. In 2007, Mitchell was listed among Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World.