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Margaret Merrilees Margaret Merrilees i(A59995 works by) (a.k.a. Mag Merrilees)
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Margaret Merrilees completed a PhD in creative writing at Flinders University in 2009. Her novel The First Week was short-listed for the 2007 Varuna manuscript awards and an earlier manuscript, The Laboratory, was short-listed for the 2004 SA Festival Awards. She has lived for many years in Adelaide and has strong links with Western Australia.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The First Week Adelaide : Wakefield Press , 2013 6459046 2013 single work novel

'Marian couldn't see the woman's eyes behind her glasses, and was filled with panic. That bosom was not for comfort. Not for Marian. She, Marian, was here so that this woman, this psychologist, could expose her failure to be a proper mother.

'Her son's actions shatter Marian's life. As the days pass she is haunted by layers of grief rising like the salt of the degraded earth.

'Marian's everyday heroism, her earthy humour and innate honesty, sustain her as she confronts her own tragedy and sees beyond it to other moral dilemmas of white Australian life - racism, environmental damage.

'This novel has its roots in an ancient landscape - the dry farming country around Koikyennuruff (Stirling Ranges) in the south of Western Australia. It is the story of a journey from the country to the city and back again, a journey that will change Marian forever.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2014 shortlisted Barbara Jefferis Award
2014 longlisted Kibble Literary Awards Nita May Dobbie Award
2014 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing
2012 winner Festival Awards for Literature (SA) Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature South Australian Literary Awards Wakefield Press Unpublished Manuscript Award
Last amended 2 Feb 2011 14:07:40
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