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Lara Pawson

Goodreads Author

Born

London

Website

https://larapawson.com/

Twitter

larapawson

Genre

Fiction, Memoir, History

Member Since

April 2015

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/larapawson

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Lara Pawson lives in London. She is the author of three books.

Spent Light (CB editions, January 2024) is a hybrid work of prose combining fiction, memoir and history. It was shortlisted for the The Goldsmiths Prize 2024 and was a book of the year in the The Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement, Frieze magazine, and New Statesman. It has received rave reviews in The Guardian, the TLS, The Telegraph, the Financial Times, The Irish Times, The Spectator, New Statesman, The Idler, and the Daily Mail. It has been translated into Serbian (Prometej, 2024) and Dutch (Koppernik, 2025), and is soon to be published in the United States with McNally Editions.

This Is the Place to Be (CB editions, 2016) is a fragmentary memoir. In 2017, it was shortli Lara Pawson lives in London. She is the author of three books.

Spent Light (CB editions, January 2024) is a hybrid work of prose combining fiction, memoir and history. It was shortlisted for the The Goldsmiths Prize 2024 and was a book of the year in the The Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement, Frieze magazine, and New Statesman. It has received rave reviews in The Guardian, the TLS, The Telegraph, the Financial Times, The Irish Times, The Spectator, New Statesman, The Idler, and the Daily Mail. It has been translated into Serbian (Prometej, 2024) and Dutch (Koppernik, 2025), and is soon to be published in the United States with McNally Editions.

This Is the Place to Be (CB editions, 2016) is a fragmentary memoir. In 2017, it was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, the PEN Ackerley Prize, and the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing. It has been translated into French as Là où tout se passe (Les Éditions de l’Observatoire, 2018) and into Spanish as Este es el lugar (LOM Ediciones, 2021).

In the Name of the People: Angola’s Forgotten Massacre (IB Tauris, 2014) is a work of investigative journalism, memoir and history. It was runner-up for the Royal Africa Society Book of the Year 2015, longlisted for The Orwell Prize 2015, and shortlisted for both the Bread & Roses Award for Radical Publishing 2015 and the Political Book Awards Debut Political Book of the Year 2015. It was translated into Portuguese as Em Nome Do Povo: O massacre que Angola silenciou (Ediçôes Tinta da China, 2014).

Her commentary, essays and reviews have been published in many places and she reviews regularly for The Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement.

Between 1996 and 2007, Lara worked as a journalist, mainly for the BBC World Service. She lived and travelled widely in Angola, Ivory Coast, Mali and Ghana, and also reported from Namibia, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Niger and São Tomé & Príncipe. During this period she also wrote for many other publications, including specialist press on Africa, mainstream newspapers, magazines and the wires.

She is represented by Lisa Baker at Aitken Alexander Associates. ...more

Combine Editions
Lara Pawson’s books

Average rating: 3.75 · 550 ratings · 101 reviews · 6 distinct works • Similar authors

	Spent Light 3.52 avg rating — 269 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	This Is the Place to Be 4.06 avg rating — 156 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In the Name of the People: Angola's Forgotten Massacre 4.20 avg rating — 71 ratings — published 2014 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Brexit Crisis: A Verso Report by Étienne Balibar, William Davies, Akwugo Emejulu 3.46 avg rating — 54 ratings — published 2016	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Là où tout se passe by Lara Pawson (Goodreads Author), Yoko Lacour (Translator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Spent Light 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Lara Pawson (?)

“A building is only good, thought Kahn, if its ruins will be any good. He was discouraged by those who thought about buildings in terms of functionality. A building is a spirit, he said. It is made out of man.”
― Lara Pawson, Spent Light

tags: architecture, buildings, form, spirit

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