way2go! 7. Coursebook, Schulbuch

129 Who is your favourite author? Take about 10 minutes to prepare a 2-minute presentation on him/her for your classmates. You could talk about: what you know about the author’s life the genre of his/her writing the language of the books (e.g. easy to read, serious/humorous, a lot of metaphors, etc.) your favourite book by the author what makes the book special to you Get into small groups to give your presentations to each other. Read the following short biography of the British author Neil Gaiman. Summarise it in three sentences, then compare your summary with a partner and in class. SPEAKING 18 a The most famous author you’ve never heard of b READING 19 Neil Gaiman Neil Gaiman was born in Hampshire, England, in 1960 and has been living in the United States since 1992, currently residing near Minneapolis. Following the publication of his ground- breaking series Sandman (1989–1996), he has become established as one of the creators of modern comics, as well as an author whose work crosses genres and reaches audiences of all ages. He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics and drama. His most recent work for TV includes serialisations of his books American Gods and Good Omens . He is also an established writer for children. His most famous work The Graveyard Book , published in 2008, won several prizes and awards including the Newbery Medal, the highest honour given in US children’s literature. In addition to that, Gaiman was awarded the UK Carnegie Medal in 2010, which makes him the first author ever to win both the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal with the same book. Interestingly enough, as one of the world’s most famous cult writers, Gaiman actually has a paradoxical kind of fame. As the Telegraph has observed, “You’re either a Gaiman fan, in which case you know absolutely everything about him, or you’ve never heard of him.” Pointing to the same quirk of the modern literary world, the London Times referred to him as “the most famous writer you’ve never heard of.” Expand your vocabulary: Talking about literature Find expressions in the biography above that mean the following: a the act of making a story or other information available b to be accepted or successful in a position c to have features of different kinds of text styles d to be popular with young and old readers e a very productive author f a reward or title showing great respect g an author very popular with a group of people h the state of being well-known LANGUAGE 20 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv