AustLit
A PALS - China Exhibition
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While some of the names here may well be the classics of the future (or, some might argue, are classics today), these authors differ from those in our 'Classic' Australian Authors trail in that their careers are very much still flourishing.
- their work is studied in Australian and international universities.
- their work is translated overseas.
- they are award-winning authors.
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Murray Bail
Novelist and Short Story Writer-
Born in Adelaide, Murray Bail spent some time living and working in India, England, and Europe. It was in England that he published his first collection of short stories, although his stories had been appearing in Westerly for some time.
His first novel appeared in 1980, and consolidated the reputation that his short stories had won him. But it was Eucalyptus, in 1999, which brought him the most acclaim, winning both the Miles Franklin Award and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and continuing his surreal and absurdist exploration of the Australian social fabric.
See translations of Murray Bail's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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4121088076883623590.jpg4959643707928972938.jpg2475237048173504439.jpgCamouflage Murray Bail , 2000 selected work short story
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Peter Carey
Novelist and Short Story Writer-
One of Australia's best-known and most highly award authors, Peter Carey has written short speculative fiction, iconoclastic historical fiction, fabulist fiction, and more.
Born at Bacchus Marsh in Victoria, he was educated at Geelong Gramma School and interrupted his university studies in science to go into an advertising agency. He was a published short-story writer before he departed Australia for an extended tour of Europe, but his first collection, The Fat Man in History, was published on his return. He has since published three more collections, but is best known for his novels, from Bliss (1981) to A Long Way from Home (2017).
Carey's work has been adapted for films from the sublime (Oscar and Lucinda) to the unexpected (Dead End Drive-In).
See translations of Peter Carey's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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6553850556325599599.jpg3337606913979162826.jpg2905091912678695337.jpg8778059293937525119.jpg3013838144088336104.jpg151978184872330880.jpg7175872501482496501.jpg3562558101088336781.jpg9138519293041811575.jpg2881971939739494412.jpg6578010218649964592.jpg4641217309949086752.jpg3244865299519142678.jpgBliss Peter Carey , 1981 single work novel
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J.M. Coetzee
Novelist-
J. M. Coetzee is a multi-award winning novelist, critic and translator. He was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1940, and in 2002, he moved to Adelaide as a permanent resident, taking up an honorary research fellow position with the English Department at the University of Adelaide.
Coetzee had first visited the country in 1990 as a guest the University of Queensland, and again in 1996 when he attended Adelaide Writers’ Week. He became an Australian citizen on 6 March 2006, at a special ceremony hosted by then Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone at the Adelaide Writers’ Week.
There is now a J. M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice at the University of Adelaide, whose head is the writer and academic Brian Castro.
See translations of J.M. Coetzee's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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5053686626706765727.jpg7058266373909139516.jpg8928362446561007069.jpg742461472910568275.jpg3777082367699423258.jpg3304472486104226055.jpg1789798601806784788.jpg860068274008270947.jpg1766461457415287758.jpg2394120439380621046.jpg3549314458711002252.jpg1987725767434269355.jpg2870689282064742222.jpg7013469828988254425.jpgDisgrace J. M. Coetzee , 1999 single work novel
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Jesus_FWod.jpg3539592903750583058.jpg6366586473920571090.jpg6205112079176725484.jpg7842047928291622824.jpgThe Childhood of Jesus J. M. Coetzee , 2013 single work novel
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Robert Drewe
Novelist and Short Story Writer-
Raised in Perth, on the far western coast of Australia, Robert Drewe worked as a journalist for Western Australian and national newspapers from the early 1960s. But in the 1970s, he turned to fiction, beginning with The Savage Crows.
In 2000, he published the work for which is still perhaps best known, the autobiographical The Shark Net, which recounts the haunting of Perth by an elusive serial killer during the 1950s, a serial killer who intersects with Drewe's childhood.
See Robert Drewe's work in translation.
Frequently studied works include:
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1342473607786503734.jpg1914449292474168219.jpg7367305477258332163.jpg3514306409491658070.jpg3331824693538042641.jpgThe Shark Net : Memories and Murder Robert Drewe , 2000 single work autobiography
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7533167772589048260.jpg7331623457475938784.jpg4135127307113193408.jpg8134977797097508761.jpg3360340938107565786.jpg3730320574210267826.jpgOur Sunshine Robert Drewe , 1991 single work novel
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5514012689495140038.jpg7496397269708390447.jpg7738833286158266509.jpgThe Savage Crows Robert Drewe , 1976 single work novel
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Richard Flanagan
Novelist and Essayist-
Richard Flanagan was the fifth of six children. He was educated at state schools, leaving school at the age of sixteen to work as a labourer in the bush. He later returned to further his education at the University of Tasmania and went on to win a Rhodes Scholarship.
In addition to his novels, which have won both national and international acclaim, Flanagan has also published a history of the Tasmanian Green Movement , The Rest of the World Is Watching (1990), with Cassandra Pybus, A Terrible Beauty: History of the Gordon River Country (1985) and On the Mountain (1996), a pictorial and natural history of Mount Wellington, with Jamie Kirkpatrick and photographs by Peter Dombrovskis. [copy/paste some of bio]
Read more about Richard Flanagan.
See translations of Richard Flanagan's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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5040552532138566386.jpg578527049579293709.jpg5131149973497526020.jpg8771627702380099330.jpg7274906014853441590.jpg5904831889903889076.jpg4390420341639362035.jpg1659868456068388131.jpg5871813703067253973.jpg4673133563275833902.jpgGould's Book of Fish : A Novel in Twelve Fish Richard Flanagan , 2001 single work novel
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Helen Garner
Writer-
Helen Garner's novels (including Monkey Grip and The Spare Room) and widely read, highly praised, and often awarded, but she is as well known, especially in more recent years, for her non-fiction: from sexuality and power imbalance in The First Stone, to a chillingly inexplicable murder in Joe Cinque's Consolation, to a horrifying Family Court case in This House of Grief.
Born in Geelong and educated at the University of Melbourne, she later worked as a teacher, but has worked as a freelance writer since the early 1970s, producing contemporary fiction and collections of non-fiction. Both fiction and non-fiction have been widely awarded.
See translations of Helen Garner's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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8133523548916058984.jpg572776407136149981.jpg7050565598652026805.jpgJoe Cinque's Consolation Helen Garner , 2004 single work prose
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8909906967026009301.jpg4526316137398161234.jpg3491297063082426278.jpg6556153448437273202.jpgThe Spare Room Helen Garner , 2008 single work novel
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Kate Grenville
Novelist-
Kate Grenville was born and educated in Sydney. In 1976, after working as an editor for Film Australia, Grenville travelled to the United Kingdom and Europe, working at several editorial and secretarial jobs. While in Europe, she began writing fiction. She was based in London and Paris between 1976 and 1980. In 1980 she moved to Colorado, USA, to complete a masters degree in creative writing at the University of Colorado. Several of her subsequent publications were developed here and she also began her career as a teacher of creative writing.
Grenville returned to Australia in 1983, where she began work at SBS Television, in the sub-titling department. Her first collection of short stories, Bearded Ladies, appeared in 1984. That year she also won the Australian/Vogel National Literary Award for her unpublished novel, Lilian's Story. Since then, she has produced many novels which have been adapted for the screen. The Secret River was also adapted for the stage by Andrew Bovell: the stage adaptation won two Helpmann Awards, a Sydney Theatre Award, a NSW Premier's Award, and an AWGIE Award, while the television adaptation also won an AWGIE Award, as well as a Logie Award, and was shortlisted for an AACTA Award.
Read more about Kate Grenville.
See translations of Kate Grenville's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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515165555974485661.jpg5796811973146498219.jpg3908480156905867022.jpg116685026607812055.jpg5699966586930371270.jpgThe Idea of Perfection Kate Grenville , 1999 single work novel
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Melissa Lucashenko
Novelist and Essayist-
Melissa Lucashenko is an award-winning novelist and essayist 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.
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.
Her 2019 publication Too Much Lip was nominated for 13 separated awards, including the Miles Franklin Literary Award, which is won.
Read more about Melissa Lucashenko.
See translations of Melissa Lucashenko's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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6974882120190174874.jpg8335266578461459604.jpgHard Yards Melissa Lucashenko , 1999 single work novel
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David Malouf
Writer-
Raised in Brisbane in a family that had arrived from Lebanon in the 1880s, David Malouf realised in his teenage years that poetry could be about Australia, when he began reading the work of Kenneth Slessor.
Across poetry, historical fiction, contemporary fiction grounded in the spaces of Australia, David Malouf has made himself one of the most significant writers in contemporary Australia: in 2016, he was given the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature, and his works have won numerous awards, including the ALS Gold Medal and the Miles Franklin Award.
See translations of David Malouf's works.
Frequently studied works include:
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3878452245611317550.jpg1400395955023056251.jpg8469332720024895220.jpg8115870445879057867.jpgFly Away Peter David Malouf , 1982 single work novella
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6675743643663189995.jpg2856691582690114612.jpg4433121231886661091.jpg5538622082091873709.jpg3632906721095649689.jpgAn Imaginary Life : A Novel David Malouf , 1978 single work novel
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Alex Miller
Novelist and Essayist-
Alex Miller was raised in south London, but migrated to Australia alone as a seventeen-year-old, working as an itinerant stockman on cattle stations around Central Queensland and the Gulf Country. The wide spaces of these years recur in novels such as Coal Creek and Journey to the Stone Country.
After graduating from the University of Melbourne, Miller taught at Brunswick Technical School, publishing his first novel in 1988. His novels since then have won and been nominated for a swathe of awards, including the Miles Franklin Award.
See translations of Alex Miller's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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1961822055194919913.jpg1756063992134324998.jpg8481520078584138805.jpg6630992433434628335.jpgJourney to the Stone Country Alex Miller , 2002 single work novel
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Gerald Murnane
Novelist-
Gerald Murnane has been publishing intricate postmodern fiction since the 1970s, attracting attention within writers' circles and winning the Patrick White Award but someone, to the surprise of fellow writers, never winning the Miles Franklin Award.
But in 2018, the New York Times Magazine published an article called 'Is the Next Nobel Laureate in Literature Tending Bar in a Dusty Australian Town?', calling him 'the greatest living English-language writer most people have never heard of', and sparking new interest in his career at home as well as in Australia. While most of his works were out of print in the 1990s, he has published four new works of fiction since 2009.
Read more about Gerald Murnane.
See Gerald Murnane's work in translation.
Frequently studied works include:
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1861506662130025204.jpg8503156937968343176.jpg264127867480524584.jpgTamarisk Row Gerald Murnane , 1974 single work novel
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Kim Scott
Novelist-
Kim Scott is a multi-award winning Indigenous (Noongar) author from Western Australia. He grew up near Albany, in southern Western Australia, then on leaving school completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Graduate Diploma in Education at Murdoch University, in Perth. He initially worked as a secondary school teacher and later turned to writing full-time.
In 2000, Scott became the first Indigenous author to win the Miles Franklin Literary Award, with his novel Benang: From the Heart (1999). In 2011 he won both the Miles Franklin and the Australian Literature Society’s Gold Medal with That Deadman Dance (2010). He was a guest speaker at the 2001 Century of Federation Alfred Deakin Lecture Series in Melbourne. He presented at the 2004 Melbourne 'Globalisation and Identities' forum. He has been a member of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board of the Australia Council. In 2012 he was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and also named West Australian of the Year.
See translations of Kim Scott's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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4235538972912765439.jpg124065660128083717.jpg5808940828954044135.jpg4316401369249798209.jpgBenang : From the Heart Kim Scott , 1999 single work novel
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902678824908213901.jpg4498170486125623600.jpg405643967348642849.jpg7820189383264703127.jpg1981339287598792053.pngThat Deadman Dance Kim Scott , 2010 single work novel
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Christos Tsiolkas
Novelist-
Since the 1990s, Christos Tsiolkas has been publishing short stories and novels that deal, in sharp, visceral prose, with issues of class, identity, and urban life in Australia, from his debut novel Loaded to his recent historical epic Damascus.
Tsiolkas, the son of Greek migrants, was raised in working-class Melbourne. As well as his short fiction and novels, he has a long-standing interest in film: several of his works have been adapted to the screen, including The Slap, which received adaptations in both Australia and the United States.
Read more about Christos Tsiolkas.
See Christos Tsiolkas' works in translation.
Frequently studied works include:
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6460608953797043331.jpg6721182012057606031.jpg1270981897725251918.jpg2820925499376542244.jpg3518334926619476448.jpgBarracuda Christos Tsiolkas , 2013 single work novel
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5595006240086183107.jpg641767027896045209.jpg4746115856433457221.jpg3797586895467896671.jpgDead Europe Christos Tsiolkas , 2005 single work novel
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Tim Winton
Novelist and Essayist-
Tim Winton is perhaps Australia's best-known writer of the sea and surf, especially masculine experiences of oceans and surfing. Born in Karrinyup, Western Australia, he is strongly associated with the distinct writing of the western part of the country.
From An Open Swimmer through Cloudstreet, Dirt Music, and Breath, Tim Winton's novels have drawn a particular image of Australia that has reached audiences across the world and attracted a swathe of awards, including four Miles Franklin Awards. In 2015, he also published Island Home : A Landscape Memoir.
See translations of Tim Winton's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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7331810683589038226.jpg4502043439927532996.jpg5128695671611634122.jpg6620398889922030557.jpg3824534049500743053.jpg8808701686216718926.jpg601318062791271480.jpg1668477743514275269.jpg5322526025330797285.jpg6578654237888864096.jpg4621978355401152893.jpgCloudstreet Tim Winton , 1991 single work novel
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Markus Zuzak
Young-Adult Writer-
Markus Zusak had published numerous young-adult novels, including the Wolfe Trilogy, before he published the book that would become a phenomenon in 2005: The Book Thief. Translated into at least 31 languages, the book sold over sixteen million copies and was adapted into a film by fellow Australian Michael Petroni.
Zusak was born in Sydney to a German mother and an Austrian father, whose stories influence The Book Thief. He worked as an English teacher while writing his earlier works. In 2018, his first book since The Book Thief, Bridge of Clay, was announced to great acclaim.
See Markus Zusak's works in translation.
Frequently studied works include:
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7303716574076816538.jpg7399153637148600301.jpg1410356000692302922.jpg6632995247279717568.jpg513428609632941354.jpg5078615538006134841.jpg4626717825961597860.jpg312361633326736707.jpgZusak_BookThief2010HB_FVEH.jpg6859834397134732440.jpg3728329821017271613.jpg9009142029887155613.jpgThe Book Thief Markus Zusak , 2005 single work novel
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1727064065424806772.jpg8510938737324849166.jpg5528710680101065824.jpg122635083105575162.jpg5460600044377022270.jpgFighting Ruben Wolfe Markus Zusak , 2000 single work novel
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EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Tim Winton - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Peter Carey - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Alex Miller - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): J. M. Coetzee - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Richard Flanagan - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Murray Bail - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Helen Garner - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Kate Grenville - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): David Malouf - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Christos Tsiolkas - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Gerald Murnane - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Kim Scott /specialistDatasets/BlackWords - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Melissa Lucashenko /specialistDatasets/BlackWords - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Robert Drewe - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Markus Zusak -
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