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Elizabeth Tan Elizabeth Tan i(A69805 works by)
Born: Established: 1988 Perth, Western Australia, ;
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

'Elizabeth Tan was born in Perth to Singaporean parents. She completed her PhD in Creative Writing at Curtin University, where she now works as a sessional tutor. Her debut novel, Rubik, has been published in Australia (Brio, 2017), North America (The Unnamed Press, 2018), and the United Kingdom (Wundor Editions, 2018). More recently, her work has appeared in OverlandStories of PerthCatapultLenny Letter, and Best Summer Stories.' (https://margaretriverpress.com/product/in-this-desert-there-were-seeds/#book-info)

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Smart Ovens for Lonely People Sydney : Brio Books , 2020 18436130 2020 selected work short story

'Conspiracies, memes, and therapies of various efficacy underpin this beguiling short-story collection from Elizabeth Tan.

'In the titular story, a cat-shaped oven tells a depressed woman she doesn’t have to be sorry anymore. A Yourtopia Bespoke Terraria employee becomes paranoid about the mounting coincidences in her life. Four girls gather to celebrate their underwear in ‘Happy Smiling Underwear Girls Party’, a hilarious take-down of saccharine advertisements.

'With her trademark wit and slicing social commentary, Elizabeth Tan’s short stories are as funny as they are insightful. This collection cements her role as one of Australia’s most inventive writers.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2022 shortlisted Barbara Jefferis Award
2021 highly commended Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Prize for Fiction
2021 longlisted Queensland Literary Awards University of Southern Queensland Australian Short Story Collection – Steele Rudd Award
2021 longlisted Colin Roderick Award
2021 longlisted The Stella Prize
2020 winner Readings Prizes Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction
Shirt Dresses That Look a Little Too Much like Shirts so That It Looks like You Forgot to Put on Pants (love Will Save the Day) 2018 single work prose
— Appears in: The Lifted Brow , March no. 37 2018; (p. 105-107) Best Summer Stories 2018; (p. 39-46)

'We need to have a talk with the girls in the office about the uncomfortable liminality of the tops they wear over their leggings. It is becoming extremely distracting, the ontological indeterminacy of their fashion. Is it a blouse? Is it a tunic? Is it a dress? These troubling questions are not conducive to productivity in the workplace.' (Introduction)

2017 shortlisted The Overland Victoria University Short Story Prize for New and Emerging Writers
y separately published work icon Rubik Surry Hills : Brio Books , 2017 10868527 2017 single work novel fantasy

'Elena Rubik can’t seem to stay dead. She persists: as a set of corneas, as a newsletter subscriber, as a member of fanfiction forums. Her best friend Jules Valentine meanwhile is unwittingly inveigled into an indie-film turned corporate branding stunt. When Jules leaks information about the true story behind the video – by then an overworked viral meme – wannabe investigative reporter April Kuan is assigned the case. But as April trails Jules all over Perth she too becomes ensnared in the machinations of shady corporate interests as the very laws of physics and time begin to bend.

'Rubik is a wide-ranging, brilliantly intertwined novel-in-stories that slip outside the borders of realism. Spotted with disappearances, mysteries and told with a sharp-edged wit and cutting social commentary, it is an original and ingenious reflection of technological anxiety, loneliness and connectivity in the internet age.' (Publication summary)

2018 shortlisted Mascara Avant-garde Awards Fiction
Last amended 9 Sep 2021 13:39:46
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