AustLit logo
image of person or book cover 3124568788352031065.jpg
Melissa Lucashenko Melissa Lucashenko i(A20994 works by)
Born: Established: 1967 Brisbane, Queensland, ;
Gender: Female
Heritage: Aboriginal ; Aboriginal Bundjalung ; Aboriginal Yugambeh / Yugumbir ; Ukrainian
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

BiographyHistory

Melissa Lucashenko is an award-winning novelist who lives between Brisbane and the Bundjalung nation. She was born and grew up in Brisbane. After working as a barmaid, delivery driver and karate instructor, Melissa received an honours degree in public policy from Griffith University, graduating in 1990.

Her writing explores the stories and passions of ordinary Australians with particular reference to Aboriginal people and others living around the margins of the first world. Melissa has been an independent screenplay assessor for Screen NSW and Screen Tasmania, and a member of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board of the Australia Council.

A versatile and prolific author, she has published (and won prizes for) young adult novels, contemporary literary fiction, and non-fiction.

Among her awards for writing are the Dobbie Prize, the Prize for Indigenous Writing (Victorian Premier's Literary Awards), and the Queensland Literary Award (Fiction Book Award). She has been shortlisted and longlisted for the Stella Prize, the Miles Franklin, the Aurealis Awards, the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. In 2013, her non-fiction essay 'Sinking Below Sight' won her a Walkley Award.

She is also a regular contributor to Griffith Review.

Exhibitions

18005706
18387981
15517821
17046891
18679934

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Edenglassie St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2023 26374920 2023 single work novel historical fiction

'When Mulanyin meets the beautiful Nita in Edenglassie, their saltwater people still outnumber the British. As colonial unrest peaks, Mulanyin dreams of taking his bride home to Yugambeh Country, but his plans for independence collide with white justice.

'Two centuries later, fiery activist Winona meets Dr Johnny. Together they care for obstinate centenarian Grannie Eddie, and sparks fly, but not always in the right direction. What nobody knows is how far the legacies of the past will reach into their modern lives.

'In this brilliant epic, Melissa Lucashenko torches Queensland’s colonial myths, while reimagining an Australian future.' (Publication summary)

2024 longlisted The Stella Prize
2024 winner Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Prize for Fiction
2024 shortlisted Indie Awards Fiction
y separately published work icon Too Much Lip St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2018 14069794 2018 single work novel

'Too much lip, her old problem from way back. And the older she got, the harder it seemed to get to swallow her opinions. The avalanche of bullshit in the world would drown her if she let it; the least she could do was raise her voice in anger.

'Wise-cracking Kerry Salter has spent a lifetime avoiding two things – her hometown and prison. But now her Pop is dying and she’s an inch away from the lockup, so she heads south on a stolen Harley.

'Kerry plans to spend twenty-four hours, tops, over the border. She quickly discovers, though, that Bundjalung country has a funny way of grabbing on to people. Old family wounds open as the Salters fight to stop the development of their beloved river. And the unexpected arrival on the scene of a good-looking dugai fella intent on loving her up only adds more trouble – but then trouble is Kerry’s middle name.

'Gritty and darkly hilarious, Too Much Lip offers redemption and forgiveness where none seems possible.' (Publication summary)

2019 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Multicultural NSW Award
2019 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Prize for Fiction
2020 shortlisted Barbara Jefferis Award
2020 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Indigenous Writer's Prize
2020 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
2019 shortlisted Voss Literary Prize
2019 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards Fiction Book Award
2019 winner Queensland Literary Awards Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance
2019 shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards Fiction
2019 finalist Queensland Literary Awards The Courier-Mail People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year
2019 longlisted Colin Roderick Award
2019 winner Miles Franklin Literary Award
2019 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Australian Literary Fiction Book of the Year
2019 shortlisted The Stella Prize
2019 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Prize for Indigenous Writing
Sinking Below Sight Sinking Below Sight : Down and Out in Brisbane and Logan 2013 single work essay
— Appears in: Griffith Review , 1 June no. 41 2013; (p. 52-67)

'Four years ago I moved with no great enthusiasm and a troubled child to Logan City, one of Australia's ten poorest urban areas...'

2013 winner Walkley Award
Last amended 11 Apr 2019 11:10:45
Other mentions of "" in AustLit:
    X