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Laura Woollett Laura Woollett i(A143252 works by) (a.k.a. Laura Elizabeth Woollett)
Born: Established: 1989 Perth, Western Australia, ;
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Laura Woollett has completed a Bachelor of Creative Writing and Philosophy. Her work is inspired by mythology and she has a passion for the art of the Pre-Raphaelites. Fiction editor for Voiceworks from 2012 to 2015, she is the author of a number of short works, the story collection For Love of a Bad Man, and the novels Beautiful Revolutionary and The Newcomer.

In 2021, she was shortlisted for the Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship.

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

2023 recipient Australia Council Grants, Awards and Fellowships Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups $36,195     
2021 shortlisted Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship
2021 longlisted ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize for ‘Ver Says’ 

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon West Girls Melbourne : Scribe , 2023 26042554 2023 single work novel

''I chose the jagged rocks, the broken bones, the spattered brains. I chose beauty. I'd choose it again.'

'Luna Lewis is white. But her friends aren't, nor are her brothers, nor her one-time Princess of Indonesia-finalist stepmother. After transforming from pudgy preteen to 'exotic' beauty, Luna reinvents herself as 'Luna Lu' and takes her ticket out of the most isolated city on earth. However, as her international modelling career approaches its expiry date, Luna must grapple with what she's sacrificed - and who she's become - in her mission to conquer the world.

'Featuring an intersecting cast of glamour-hungry public schoolgirls, WAGs, mining heiresses, backpacker-barmaids, and cosmetic nurses, West Girls examines beauty, race, class divisions, and social mobility in Australia's richest state. It's also a devastating catalogue of the myriad, inventive ways in which women love and hurt one another.'(Publication summary)

2024 longlisted The Stella Prize
y separately published work icon The Newcomer Melbourne : Scribe , 2021 20729578 2021 single work novel crime mystery

'In a hotel room on a sleepy Pacific island, Judy Novak waits. And worries.

'It isn’t the first time 29-year-old problem child Paulina has kept her mother waiting. But Judy can’t ignore the island’s jagged cliffs and towering pines — or the dread that Paulina has finally acted on her threats to take her own life.

'When Paulina’s body is discovered, Judy’s worst fears seem confirmed. Only, Paulina didn’t kill herself. She was murdered.

'So begins a thorny investigation, wherein every man on the island is a suspect yet none are as maligned as Paulina: the captivating newcomer known for her hard drinking, disastrous relationships, and habit of walking alone.

'But, above all, Paulina is her mother’s daughter. And death won’t stop Judy Novak from fighting for Paulina’s life.'

Source : publisher's blurb

2022 longlisted Davitt Award Best Adult Crime Novel
y separately published work icon Beautiful Revolutionary Melbourne : Scribe , 2018 13911619 2018 single work novel

'It’s the summer of 1968, and Evelyn Lynden is a woman at war with herself. Minister’s daughter. Atheist. Independent woman. Frustrated wife. Bitch with a bleeding heart.

'Following her conscientious-objector husband Lenny to the rural Eden of Evergreen Valley, California, Evelyn wants to be happy with their new life. Yet as the world is rocked by warfare and political assassinations, by racial discrimination and social upheaval, she finds herself disillusioned with Lenny’s passive ways — and anxious for a saviour.

'Enter the Reverend Jim Jones, the dynamic leader of a revolutionary church called Peoples Temple. As Evelyn grows closer to Jones, her marriage is just the first casualty of his rise to power.

'Meticulously researched, elegantly written, and utterly engrossing, Beautiful Revolutionary explores the allure of the real-life charismatic leader who would destroy so many. In masterful prose, Woollett painstakingly examines what happens when Evelyn is pulled into Jones’s orbit — an orbit it would prove impossible for her to leave.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2019 shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards Fiction
2019 longlisted Davitt Award Best Adult Crime Novel
2019 shortlisted ASAL Awards ALS Gold Medal
Last amended 25 Aug 2023 12:30:53
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