WAUGH, Louisa 1970(?)-

PERSONAL:

Female. Born c. 1970, in Berlin, Germany.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Edinburgh, Scotland. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Little, Brown & Co. Ltd., Brettenham House, Lancaster Place, London WC2E 7EN, England.

CAREER:

Teacher and author. Taught school in remote Mongolia.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Ondaatje Prize, Royal Society of Literature, 2004, for Hearing Birds Fly: A Nomadic Year in Mongolia.

WRITINGS:

Hearing Birds Fly: A Nomadic Year in Mongolia, Little, Brown (London, England), 2003.

Author of ten-part series about Mongolia for BBC World Service. Contributor of travel articles to British newspapers, including Independent and Guardian.

SIDELIGHTS:

Louisa Waugh was born in Berlin, Germany, and educated in the Liverpool section of London. Waugh skipped college and in 1993 briefly visited Mongolia while traveling to China. Drawn back to the people and the land, she eventually spent an extended period in the remote mountain village of Tsengel in Mongolia, near the border with Kazakhstan, to teach school. In her first book, Hearing Birds Fly: A Nomadic Year in Mongolia, Waugh recounts her experiences there and her impressions of the landscape and its people.

As recounted in her book, which is based on the diary she kept for a year, Waugh found herself facing harsh realities, such as temperatures that dropped to near 20 degrees below freezing. A major concern was the complex tribal divisions involving the Kazakhs and Halkhs, or ethnic Mongolians. Waugh found herself caught in the middle of this conflict because of two women friends, one from each side of a fray that has been marked by deep prejudices. Throughout the book Waugh describes the daily struggle for survival and the hardships and happenings of day-to-day life, from wedding feasts to suicide.

Writing in Geographical, Katherine Jack noted Waugh's use of "keen observation and beautiful imagery" to tell her story. New Internationalist contributor Nikki Van Der Gaag commented, "Waugh brings a freshness and an honesty which is both gripping and rare." Jane Perry, writing in the Observer, said, "Waugh has captured the starkly beautiful landscapes in restrained descriptive passages, but the most fascinating aspect of her narrative is her portrayal of the villagers and the nomads she meets higher up in the mountains, tending their livestock through the cruelest elements." In addition to good reviews, Waugh garnered the inaugural Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize for the book. In a Royal Society of Literature press release, judges chair Richard Holmes noted, "The beautiful authenticity of Louisa Waugh's prose carried the day—or rather carried us away."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Geographical, June, 2003, Katherine Jack, review of Hearing Birds Fly: A Nomadic Year in Mongolia, p. 60.

New Internationalist, June, 2003, Nikki Van Der Gaag, review of Hearing Birds Fly, p. 30.

ONLINE

Independent Online,http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/ (July 4, 2004), Arifa Akbar, "Magical Mongolian Journal Wins First Ondaatje Prize."

Observer Online,http://books.guardian.co.uk/ (January 19, 2003), Jane Perry, review of Hearing Birds Fly: A Nomadic Year in Mongolia.

Royal Society of Literature Web site,http://www.rslit.org/ (May 18, 2004), "Louisa Waugh Wins Inaugural Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize."*