Ann Scott

Infobox Writer
name = Ann Scott


imagesize = 150px
caption = Ann Scott, Paris, 2005
birthdate = birth date and age|1965|11|3|df=y
birthplace = Paris, France
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = Novelist
genre = Fiction
movement = Postmodern
notableworks =
influences = Truman Capote, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Honoré de Balzac
influenced =
website = http://www.annscott.fr/

Ann Scott (b. 3 November, 1965, Paris, France) is a French novelist.

She is regarded as a social realist for her novels, which paint detailed portraits of contemporary youth haunted by teenage boredom, drugs, materialism, status obsession and social trangression. Her second novel "Superstars" has given her a cult status in France. [ By French writer and book critic Frédéric Beigbeder in the TV show "Rive Droite Rive Gauche" and later most of the french press stated the same, including Le Monde, 20th august 2005] .

Biography

She was born and raised in Paris, France. Her mother is a news photographer of Russian descent, and her father, a French businessman and art collector who was the first to buy Jean-Michel Basquiat's work in FranceFact|date=May 2008. She has a step sister, and a step brother born in Colombia.

At age 16, she moved alone to London, England where she became a musician, playing drums with local punk bands. At 18, she turned to fashion modelling and became the first tattooed fashion model to break through in prêt-à-porter and couture in the eighties [ [http://annscott.fr/images/presse/1.jpg"Femme Actuelle", 2000] ] . She modelled for three years from 1985 to 1988 and worked with Nick Knight, Ellen von Unwerth, Paolo Roversi. She did runway shows for Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano, Yohji Yamamoto, Comme des Garçons, Jean-Paul Gaultier, advertising campaigns for L'Oréal and for English hair salon Vidal Sassoon, magazines covers including I-D and The Face , and spreads for English, Italian and French fashion magazines such as Vogue, Lei, Harpers & Queen and Tatler.

She is now a fiction writer and the author of several novels including "Superstars" which has become a cult novel translated in several countries.

Writing

She discovered literature in her early twenties reading American writers such as William S. Burroughs, Hubert Selby Jr, John Fante, Jack Kerouac and Truman Capote. A meeting with French publisher and writer Michel Luneau convinced her to start writing. She published several short stories in French magazines but her first two novels were unpublished, until in 1996, she met Florent Massot, who had published Virginie Despentes's Baise-moi.

"Asphyxie", her first published novel, was inspired by Nirvana and its singer Kurt Cobain, and Ann Scott was the first writer in France to write a novel inspired by a rock band and the first to pay tribute to Kurt Cobain.

"Superstars", published in 2000 by Flammarion, is a manifesto of the techno culture which gave her instant cult author status. A movie based on the book is in pre-production.

"Poussières d'anges", her next book published in 2002, is a series of portraits of deceased people (River Phoenix, Joey Ramone, Johnny Thunders, Edie Sedgwick...).

"Le pire des mondes", her third novel published in 2004, is on urban paranoïa and was often compared to Brett Easton Ellis's "American psycho". [See French "ELLE", January 2004]

"Héroïne", her fourth novel published in 2005, on love obsession, is considered a follow up to "Superstars", although this time it's a "huit clos".

"Les chewing gums ne sont pas biodegradables", her sixth book, is a novella published with drawings by Gabriel Gay. The author invites a famous American writer for the summer and is left with the impossible task of trying to put up with his demands.

All the books are translated into several languages but not yet into English.
She has also written songs for bands, the most well-known one being "Paradize" for French band Indochine for their album of the same title. She has also published several short stories in various french magazines and french and european anthologies of collected short stories.

She is often regarded as a social realist like Brett Easton Ellis or Jay McInerney and is said to be mostly influenced by Balzac and Truman Capote. [See French "Le Monde 2", August 20, 2005 ]

Personal life

She has been romantically linked to several rock musicians and she has also been open about bisexual relationships, with actresses as well as fashion models [See French "Vogue", March 2005] . Her most notorious affair being with the late french deejay Sextoy for whom she wrote "Superstars". "Poussières d'anges" also includes a portrait of Sextoy after she passed away.

Bisexuality is a theme in her writing. [ [http://editions.flammarion.com/catalogue/fiche.php?l=a%3A1%3A%7Bs%3A8%3A%22searchId%22%3Bs%3A44%3A%22ij%2FUTaJ8N%2BTcMMKyPPKUodX8Ex1zK8vMX3kUr0p6tb4%3D%22%3B%7D&nonotice=0-2005220655&i=2-08-068707-7 plot of "Héroïne"] ]

At some time she lived with writer Virginie Despentes, and has been romantically linked to French writer Frédéric Beigbeder, and French writer, rock critic and musican Patrick Eudeline. She was also close to painter Keith Haring and met Andy Warhol. She's is also close to American musician and producer Lenny Kaye and her closest friend is italian born french writer Simonetta Greggio.

She has several tattoos. She says about them that, "if I had to do them all over again, I probably wouldn't as I now find them hard to wear". [ See "Jardin des Modes", n°192, 1996 ]

Her books often mention various types of drugs and she was addicted to heroin when she was younger, but she claims she hasn't touched it again since.

Controversy

She was strongly rejected by a part of the French gay and lesbian community after declaring on the set of French TV show "Nulle Part Ailleurs" that she found homosexuality "immature" [See "Nova" Magazine, February 2001] : "Being bisexual has often brought some kind of balance to my life, but having strict homosexual relationships led to pathological experiences for me ". ["Nulle Part Ailleurs", Canal Plus, 1rst January 2001]

Bibliography

All titles in paperback by J'ai lu Publishers.

References

External links

* [http://annscott.fr/ Official Ann Scott website]
* [http://editions.flammarion.com/accueil/ Official Flammarion website]
* [http://livres.fluctuat.net/ann-scott.html Small photo gallery]