Martin J. Goodman (born in Leicester in 1956) is an English journalist and writer.
Early life Martin Goodman went to Loughborough Grammar School. He is Emeritus professor at the University of Hull, where he was Professor of Creative Writing 2009-2019 and Director of the Philip Larkin Centre for Poetry and Creative Writing.https://philiplarkin.com/poem-reviews/days-2/ Before moving to Hull, Martin Goodman was lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Plymouth.Plymouth.ac.uk, Retrieved 19 November 2017 He completed his PhD in Creative Writing at Lancaster University in 2007.
Career Martin Goodman writes both fiction and nonfiction. His most recent book of nonfiction is My Head for a Tree, an account of the Bishnoi of India and their religion.https://profilebooks.com/work/my-head-for-a-tree/ His Client Earth, May 2017, from Scribe Publications."Client Earth" Retrieved 19 November 2017 tells the story of ecolawyers saving the planet, and was co-written with his husband the environmental lawyer James Thornton. They presented the work at the Sydney Opera House's Antidote Festival in September 2017."Justice for the Planet" Sound Recording, Sydney Opera House, Retrieved 19 November 2017 They were interviewed about the book on BBC Parliament's BOOKtalk in July 2017."James Thornton and Martin Goodman" bbc.co.uk, Retrieved 19 November 2017 Granta Magazine profiled their life and work together in an interview in July 2017."How to Fight Climate Change" Granta.com, Retrieved 19 November 2017 He is the publisher of Barbican Press."Find Your Voice" TheGuardian.com, Retrieved 19 November 2017 His latest fiction is a first collection of short stories on gay themes, Lessons from Cruising.https://barbicanpress.com/book/lessons-from-cruising/ His most recent novel The Cellist of Dachau takes music and the Holocaust as its themes,https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/the-cellist-of-dachau Forever Konrad, PS Publishing, 2017 is a vampire novel, set partly in Hull and the nearby village of Cherry Burton.
Martin Goodman once taught on the distance learning MA at Lancaster University, where he worked on the British Council Crossing Borders scheme as a mentor to writers in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Goodman's novel On Bended Knees (Macmillan, 1992) was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award (won by Jeff Torrington's Swing Hammer Swing)."Crossing Borders New Writing from Africa", British Council . Retrieved 25 November 2013.
His next books published were all non-fiction, often on a spiritual theme and published at first in America. He wrote a biography of Mother Meera, In Search of the Divine Mother (1998). His 2001 book I Was Carlos CastanedaSusan Salter Reynolds (29 April 2001). "Discoveries: (I Was Carlos Castaneda)". Los Angeles Times. recounted his experiences with shamanism and the plant hallucinogen ayahuasca. On Sacred Mountains (2002) is a round-the-world travelogue and journey of spiritual awakening; The Guardian review stated: "Either an important spiritual document, or an admonitory example of the effects of oxygen deprivation."
His next novels were Slippery When Wet (2006), from Transita in Oxford; Look Who's Watching (2011) from Caffeine Nights, and Ectopia (2014) from Barbican Press. He started Barbican Press with the slogan "Writing from the Discomfort Zone", with a list of novels written as PhDs inspired by his being external examiner for D.D. Johnston at the University of Gloucestershire. The first novel published was Johnston's The Deconstruction of Professor Thrub."D.D.Johnston event – the complete PhD creative writing experience", Great Writing Conference, Imperial College, 30 June 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
He was one of the AHRC / BBC New Generation Thinkers in 2012–13.BBC.co.uk "Radio 3 announces New Generation Thinkers 2012". Retrieved 25 November 2013. 2014 saw BBC Radio 4 broadcast his documentary on the writer Alan Garner, The Bronze Age Man of Jodrell BankBBC.co.uk The Bronze Age Man of Jodrell Bank Retrieved 19 November 2017. His two-part Radio 4 series show The New North aired in 2013"The New North", BBC.co.uk, 27 August 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2013. and he wrote about the buildings in the North of England in the BBC online news magazine.Goodman, Martin 26 May 2013 "Which is the North's best building?" Retrieved 25 November 2013. Martin Goodman gave a reading from his new novel on vampires at the Bram Stoker Birthday Conference in Whitby in November 2013."The Second Bram Stoker Birthday Lecture and Symposium", Hull.ac.uk. 20 August 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013. This was published as Forever Konrad: A Vampire's Vampire in November 2017."Forever Konrad" As Director of the Philip Larkin Centre he ran major public interview sessions in Hull with writers such as Hilary Mantel, Steven Saylor, Christopher Hampton, Emma Thompson, Irene Sabatini,"Larkin Centre Events Irene Sabatini" (interview). Vimeo. 24 March 2011. University of Hull. Kate Mosse, David Almond, Lachlan Mackinnon, Edna O'Brien. He started the Annual Children's Writing Event in Hull, working first of all with Emma Thompson"Emma Thompson's Big Event for Hull". University of Hull News. 14 May 2010. and the Hull Children's Flood ProjectWalker, M., et al. (2010). "Final project report for ‘Children, Flood and Urban Resilience: Understanding children and young people's experience and agency in the flood recovery process". Lancaster University, Lancaster UK. and then with David Almond hosted by students of Sidney Smith Schoolhttp://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/top-author-at-writing-event-for-children-1-3389628. and Malorie Blackman, who wrote the introduction to a book of resulting stories by Hull children.When Opposites Attract Retrieved 19 November 2017
In 2011 he joined the Man Booker Prize Foundation University Initiative, bringing D.B.C. Pierre to Hull to speak about his 2003 novel Vernon God Little, after distributing a copy of the book to all first-year students at Hull"Booker prize winning author shows novel approach in campus interviews", Yorkshire Post. 1 November 2011. and on film at Scarborough. "DBC Pierre in Scarborough" (video). Culturenet.co.uk. Julian Barnes was his Man Booker guest in 2013."Julian Barnes" Julian Barnes, Retrieved 19 November 2017
Awards Client Earth, written jointly with his husband James Thornton (environmentalist), was Winner of the Judge's Choice, Business Book of the Year in the Business Book of the Year Awards, 2018 and the Santa Monica Public Library's Green Prize for sustainable Literature 2019.https://www.santamonica.gov/press/2019/10/18/santa-monica-public-library-s-2019-green-prize-for-sustainable-literature-winners For his biography of the Scottish scientist and serial self-experimenter John Scott Haldane, Suffer and Survive, he won 1st Prize, Basis of Medicine in the 2008 BMA Book Awards2008 BMA Book Awards. Martin Goodman has been awarded a Scottish Arts Council Writer's Bursary, and Travel Awards from the Scottish Arts Council and the Society of Authors. His first novel On Bended Knees was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize.Lancaster University "Some recent publications by past and present students of Creative Writing at Lancaster University" Retrieved 25 November 2013. He was awarded a British Academy Small Research Grant in 2010 for a biography of Taezan Maezumi Roshi. His play Feeding the Roses won in Virtual Theatre's "Pen is a Mighty Sword" international playwriting competition in 2007, for "innovative plays that question the status quo and shed light on today's challenges"."Staged readings of winning 'PEN' plays to be presented at Wake Forest", Wake Forest University. Retrieved 25 November 2013. A major two-year research grant, from the MacIntosh Foundation of Washington DC, USA, funded a life-writing project (2013–15), detailing how a group of public interest lawyers are working throughout Europe and West Africa to tackle urgent environmental issues such as loss of biodiversity and climate change."Martin Goodman, B.A, PhD (Lancaster)", University of Hull. Retrieved 25 November 2013. This was published in the UK and Australia as Client Earth in 2017, with sections by James Thornton interleaving Goodman's narrative."Isaac Newton, dirty air litigation and limestone loving" Oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk, Retrieved 19 November 2017
References
External links Martin J. Goodman's web site Martin Goodman's literary agency page Martin Goodman - publisher page Interview with Martin Goodman in Morning Star Martin Goodman - BBC talk on the art of biography Martin Goodman - on writing about the Holocaust