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Sophie Cunningham Sophie Cunningham i(A61963 works by)
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

During her residency in Sri Lanka (2005), Cunningham planned to complete Dharma is a Girl's Best Friend and to begin research on a third novel; both works responded to Cunningham's interest in the meeting of cultures, people and places. Sophie Cunningham was editor of Meanjin from 2008, resigning from the end of 2010 to return to full-time writing. In 2012, she was appointed chair of the Australia Council's Literature Board. In 2017, she was awarded the Nature Conservancy's Nature Writing Prize; the prize-winning essay, 'Biyala Stories', was published in Griffith Review.

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Warning: The Story of Cyclone Tracy (Text Publishing) was longlisted for a Walkley Award in 2014, and shortlisted for a Queensland Literary Award (History Book award) in 2015.

Personal Awards

2019 recipient Order of Australia Member of the Order of Australia (AM) For significant service to literature as an author, editor and role model.
2005 Australia Council Literature Board Grants Grants for Developing Writers $15,000 for fiction writing.
2005 recipient Asialink Arts Exchanges Program Residency in Sri Lanka.

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Portraits Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2023 25775158 2023 selected work art work

'Portraits is a love letter to our culture makers, a sparkling collection of more than 300 drawings of artists, writers, musicians, thinkers and makers compiled from W. H. Chong’s sketchbooks of the last decade. There are also paintings, prints, and digital art. Chong’s portraits present a kaleidoscope of the Australian cultural community, from national icons to local legends, all pursuing their individual passions and inspiration.' (Publication summary)

2024 APA Book Design Awards Best Designed Fully Illustrated Book Under $75
y separately published work icon Flipper and Finnegan - The True Story of How Tiny Jumpers Saved Little Penguins Crows Nest : Albert Street Books , 2022 24669035 2022 single work picture book children's

'From the bestselling creators of Tippy & Jellybean - The True Story of the Brave Koala who Saved Her Baby From a Bushfire, this affirming and delightful tale is based on a true story of animal rescue and community cooperation.

'Flipper and Finnegan live on a beautiful island.
Every morning they hunt for fish in the clear blue ocean waters.
Every evening they waddle up the beach together with all their friends - it's a penguin parade.

'But one day, when Flipper comes up for air she gets covered in something that is black and smelly and sticky - and Finnegan is nowhere to be seen...

'This is the miraculous true story of how a viral knitting campaign helped save the lives of Phillip Island's Little Penguins.' (Publication summary)

2023 shortlisted Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards Three to 5 Years
y separately published work icon This Devastating Fever Ultimo : Ultimo Press , 2022 24386467 2022 single work novel

'Alice had not expected to spend the first twenty years of the twenty-first century writing about Leonard Woolf. When she stood on Morell Bridge watching fireworks explode from the rooftops of Melbourne at the start of a new millennium, she had only two thoughts. One was: the fireworks are better in Sydney. The other was: was the world’s technology about to crash down around her? The world’s technology did not crash. But there were worse disasters to come: Environmental collapse. The return of fascism. Wars. A sexual reckoning. A plague.

'Uncertain of what to do she picks up an unfinished project and finds herself trapped with the ghosts of writers past. What began as a novel about a member of the Bloomsbury set, colonial administrator, publisher and husband of one the most famous English writers of the twentieth century becomes something else altogether.

'Complex, heartfelt, darkly funny and deeply moving, this is Sophie Cunningham’s most important book to date – a dazzlingly original novel about what it’s like to live through a time that feels like the end of days, and how we can find comfort and answers in the past.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2023 longlisted Colin Roderick Award
2023 longlisted Booksellers Choice Award BookPeople Book of the Year Adult Fiction Book of the Year
2023 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Prize for Fiction
Last amended 12 Jun 2019 16:01:29
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