Sarah Waters

Awdures o Gymru sy'n ysgrifennu yn Saesneg yw Sarah Waters (ganed 21 Gorffennaf 1966), sydd fwyaf adnabyddus am ei nofelau sydd wedi eu gosod yn oes Fictoria, megis Tipping the Velvet a Fingersmith.

Bywgraffiad
Ganed Sarah Waters yn Neyland, Sir Benfro, yn ferch i Ron a Mary Walters. Gwraig tŷ oedd ei mam, peiriannydd mewn purfa olew oedd ei thad, ac roedd ganddi chwaer. Disgrifiai ei theulu fel un gweddol deniadol, hynod o ddiogel a magwriaethol, ac roedd ei thad yn berson arbennig o greadigol, a anogodd hi i adeiladu a dyfeisio.

Mynychodd Ysgol Gyfun Aberdaugleddau cyn mynd ymlaen i astudio Saesneg, gan ennill gradd baglor o Brifysgol Caint, gradd meistr o Brifysgol Caerhirfryn, a Doethuriaeth o Brifysgol y Frenhines Mary, Llundain.The thesis can be downloaded from the British Library's EthOS archive: uk.bl.ethos.393332  Fel rhan o'i ymchwil, darllenodd bornograffi'r 19g, ac yno daeth ar draws teitl ei nofel gyntaf, Tipping the Velvet.

Mae Waters yn byw mewn fflat ar lawr uchaf tŷ Fictoraidd yn Kennington, de-ddwyrain Llundain. Mae hi wedi bod yn dysgu Cymraeg tra yn Llundain yn y City Lit. <www.citylit.ac.uk>

Cyn cychwyn ysgrifennu nofelau, gweithiodd Waters fel academydd, gan ennill doethuriaeth a dysgu eraill. Cyn gynted ag y gorffennodd ei doethuriaeth, ysgrifennodd ei nofel gyntaf. Yn wir, tarddiad syniadau'r nofel oedd ei thesis. Mae llawer iawn o ymchwil yn mynd i'w gwaith, ac mae'n mwynhau'r elfen honno o ysgrifennu am gyfnod arbennig. Mae Waters yn aelod o gylch London North Writers, sydd wedi cynnwys yr awduron Charles Palliser a Neil Blackmore ymysg eraill.

Heblaw am ei llyfr diweddaraf, The Little Stranger, mae ei holl nofelau'n dilyn themâu lesbiaidd.

Tipping the Velvet (1998)
Tipping the Velvet oedd ei nofel gyntaf, roedd yn waith picaresque Fictoraidd, a gyhoeddwyd gan Virago ym 1998. Cymerodd 18 mis i gwblhau'r nofel. Mae'r nofel yn cymryd ei theitl o'r slang Fictoraidd am cunnilingus. Enillodd wobr Betty Trask ym 1999, a chyrhaeddodd restr fer Gwobr Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys. Yn 2002, addaswyd y nofel yn gyfres deledu tair rhan ar gyfer BBC Two ac mae wedi cael ei chyfieithu i 24 o wahanol ieithoedd.Affinity (1999)
Waters's second book, Affinity was published a year after her first, in 1999. The novel, also set in the Victorian era, centres on the world of Victorian Spiritualism. While finishing her debut novel, Waters had been working on an academic paper on spiritualism. She combined her interests in spiritualism, prisons, and the Victorian era in Affinity, which tells the story of the relationship between an upper middle-class woman and an imprisoned spiritualist.

The novel is less light-hearted than the ones that preceded and followed it. Waters found it less enjoyable to write. "It was a very gloomy world to have to go into every day", she said.

Affinity won the Stonewall Book Award and Somerset Maugham Award. Andrew Davies wrote a screenplay adapting Affinity and the resulting feature film premiered 19 June 2008 at the opening night of Frameline the San Francisco LGBT Film Festival at the Castro Theater.

Fingersmith (2002)
Fingersmith was published in 2002. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize.

Fingersmith was made into a serial for BBC One in 2005, starring Sally Hawkins, Elaine Cassidy and Imelda Staunton. Waters approved of the adaptation, calling it "especially a really good quality show", and said it was "very faithful to the book. It was spookily faithful to the book at times, which was exciting."

The Night Watch (2006)
The Night Watch took four years for Waters to write. It differs from the first three novels in its time period and the way it was written. Although her thesis and previous books focused on the 19th century, Waters said that "Something about the 1940s called to me". It was also less tightly plotted than her other books. Waters said,

The novel tells the stories of a man and three women in 1940s London. Waters describes it as "fundamentally a novel about disappointment and loss and betrayal", as well as "real contact between people and genuine intimacy".

In 2005, Waters received the highest bid (£1,000) during a charity auction in which the prize was the opportunity to have the winner's name immortalized in The Night Watch. The auction featured many notable British novelists, and the name of the bidder, author Martina Cole, appeared in Waters' novel.

The Little Stranger (2009) 
Also set in the 1940s, The Little Stranger also diverts from Waters' previous novels. It is her first with no overtly lesbian characters. Initially, Waters set out to write a book about the economic changes brought by socialism in postwar Britain, and reviewers note the connection with Evelyn Waugh.Didock, Barry (30 May 2009). "Capturing the spirit of the age: A haunting novel evokes the claustrophobia of postwar Britain", The Herald (Glasgow), p. 9. Along the novel's construction, it turned into a ghost story in the style of Edgar Allan Poe as the story explores the relationship of a family who owns a grand estate that they can no longer afford to keep, with their family doctor whose mother was once a maid in the house. Waters' grandparents were servants in a country house.Allemang, John (18 May 2009). "Ghost writer: She's known for writing Victorian-era lesbian sex romps, but best-selling author Sarah Waters haunts a new genre in her latest novel, The Little Stranger", The Globe and Mail (Canada) p. R1.

Nofel newydd
Waters’ next book will be set in the 1920s, and she expects to finish writing it by the end of 2012. 

The new novel will feature lesbian characters. Waters said:

Llyfryddiaeth
 Academic work 


 Wolfskins and togas : lesbian and gay historical fictions, 1870 to the present  (PhD thesis), Queen Mary, University of London, 1995

 Nofelau
 Tipping the Velvet, 1998
 Affinity, 1999
 Fingersmith, 2002
 The Night Watch, 2006
 The Little Stranger, 2009

Addasiadau
 Tipping the Velvet (2002), BBC2
 Fingersmith (2005), BBC1
 Affinity (2008), ITV1
 The Night Watch (2011), BBC2

Sarah Waters appeared briefly in both Tipping the Velvet, as an audience member, and Fingersmith'', as a maid.

Gwobrau
Sarah Waters was named as one of Granta's 20 Best of Young British Writers in January 2003. The same year, she received the South Bank Award for Literature. She was named Author of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards. In both 2006 and 2009 she won "Writer of the Year" at the annual Stonewall Awards. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009.

Each of her novels has received awards as well.

Tipping the Velvet
 Betty Trask Award, 1999
 Library Journal's Best Book of the Year, 1999
 Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, 1999
 New York Times Notable Book of the Year Award, 1999
 Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian and Gay Fiction (shortlist), 2000
 Lambda Literary Award for Fiction, 2000

Affinity
 Stonewall Book Award (American Library Association GLBT Roundtable Book Award), 2000
 Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year Award (shortlist), 2000
 Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian and Gay Fiction, 2000
 Lambda Literary Award for Fiction (shortlist), 2000
 Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (shortlist), 2000
 Somerset Maugham Award for Lesbian and Gay Fiction, 2000
 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, 2000

Fingersmith
 British Book Awards Author of the Year, 2002
 Crime Writers' Association Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, 2002
 Man Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2002
 Orange Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2002

The Night Watch
 Man Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2006
 Orange Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2006
 Lambda Literary Award, 2007

The Little Stranger
 Man Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2009
 Nominee for Shirley Jackson Award, 2009 

Cyfeiriadau

Dolenni allanol

British Council Biography and Bibliography
Virago Profile 

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