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Gillian Polack Gillian Polack i(A74888 works by) (a.k.a. Gillian S. Polack; G. S. Polack)
Born: Established: 1961 Melbourne, Victoria, ;
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Born in Melbourne, Gillian Polack has a Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours) in History from Melbourne University, a Master of Arts from the Centre for Medieval Studies (University of Toronto), a Doctor of Philosophy in History at the University of Sydney from the University of Sydney, teaching qualifications from the University of New England, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Writing from the University of Western Australia.

Polack researches food history, including teaching food history at the Australian National University. She has also been a columnist for the American online literary magazine BiblioBuffet, and has worked on the conference circuit, including WorldCon, Flycon (an online science-fiction convention), and Conflux. Her non-fiction includes scholarly work on the Middle ages, including Arthurian literature, food, and Jewish experiences in the medieval period.

Gillian Polack received a Macquarie Bank Fellowship and a Blue Mountains Fellowship to work on novels at Varuna writers' residence in the Blue Mountains. She has published a number of novels and short stories, and has also edited collections of speculative fiction.

In 2018, IFWG Published Australia announced that they would be publishing a new science-fiction novel by Polack, The Year of the Fruitcake, in the first quarter of 2019.

For works not individually indexed on AustLit, see notes below.

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • In addition to the works individually indexed on AustLit, Gillian Polack has also written the following. Most of these works are outside AustLit's scope; some (noted as such) are unsighted.

    • History and Fiction: Writers, Their Research, Worlds and Stories, Peter Lang, 2016.
    • 'Australian Speculative Fiction and the Land: Culture and Ownership' (conference paper), Holdfast, 2015.
    • 'Grim to Grimdark,' in Fantasy and Science Fiction Medievalisms: From Isaac Asimov to A Game of Thrones ed. Helen Young. Cambria University Press, 2015.
    • (with Katrina Kania) The Middle Ages Unlocked: A Guide to Life in Medieval England, 1050-1300 (Amberley Books, 2015).
    • 'Dialogue and Doomsday: Comedy and Conviction in Connie Willis and Oscar Wilde', Vector, 2013. (Periodical details untraced.)
    • 'Edith, Gussie and Linzertorte', Storied Dishes, ed. Linda Berzok, Greenwood Press, 2010.
    • 'Red Paper' (short story), Conflux, 2009 (unsighted).
    • 'The Middle Ages' (chapter), in Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy: volume 1, ed. R. A. Reid, Greenwood Press, 2008.
    • 'Geoff Ryman's Realities,' Steam Engine Time no.9 (2008).
    • two entries in The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Love, Courtship, and Sexuality through History (W.E. Burns, 2008).
    • 'How Fiction Writers use the Middle Ages' (unsighted), AntiTHESIS forum, 2005.
    • 'An Exploration of Jewish Fairytales' (unsighted), Fables & Reflections no.7 (2005).
    • A Medieval French Rosh Hashanah (Kosher Consumers' Association, 2003).
    • Once and Future: Medieval and Modern Arthurian Literature (Occasional Papers 1, Arthurian Association of Australia, 2000).
    • 'William of Orange' in Medieval Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs (ABC-CLIO, 2000).
    • 'A Brief Introduction to Medieval Jewish Arthurian Literature', GrailQuest '99 Conference Proceedings, 2000.
    • 'Modern Feminism and the Medieval Arthurian Romance: A Reflection', Once and Future: Medieval and Modern Arthurian Literature, Arthurian Association of Australia, 2000, pp.14-20.
    • 'Immersed in a Sea of Perplexed Thoughts: Some Ideas on a Medieval Text', Once and Future: Medieval and Modern Arthurian Literature, Arthurian Association of Australia, 2000, pp.47-48
    • 'International Folk Dance in Canberra, Australia', Newfolk: New Directions in Folklore, no.4 (2000).
    • 'Words' (short story), Emu Literary Magazine, Spring-summer 1985 (unsighted).
    • 'Twilight' (short story), Yddgrasil, 1982 (unsighted).
    • 'The Performance' (short story), The Journal, 1982 (unsighted). This story also won a Victorian Government Ministry for the Arts Award.
    • ' A New Life', Kivin, 1981.

Personal Awards

2023 nominated Ditmar Awards William Atheling Jr Award for Story Matrices: Cultural Encoding and Cultural Baggage in Science Fiction and Fantasy
2022 longlisted British Science Fiction Association Awards Non-fiction for ''Story Matrices: Cultural Encoding and Cultural Baggage in Science Fiction and Fantasy'
2020 winner A. Bertram Chandler Award

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Poison and Light Canberra : Shooting Star Press , 2020 18983176 2020 single work novel science fiction

'Renowned artist Grania, famed as a painter of light, arrives in a sleek space ship from Lost Earth, ready to embrace New Ceres and its New Enlightenment in its entirety – its 18th century set up, its coffee houses, its gossipy salons, and its obsession with a low-level approach to tech . . . But is she really ready for its cutthroat society, its strange food issues or for Livia? Livia who toys with lives on a whim, and will stop at nothing to realize her dream society.

'When Grania marries Dal and sets up her own political salons, the stage is set for a battle of wills and poisonous chaos ensues.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2021 shortlisted Ditmar Awards Best Novel
y separately published work icon The Year of the Fruit Cake Victoria : IFWG Publishing Inc , 2019 16751051 2019 single work novel fantasy

'The Year of the Fruitcake tells of the Earth-based life of a mostly-mindwiped alien anthropologist inhabiting a human perimenopausal body instead of her own more rational body with its capacity to change gender. This alien has definitely shaken a great intergalactic empire by sitting in cafés with her new best friends. Chocolate may or may not have played a part. Will humanity survive?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2020 winner Ditmar Awards Best Novel
2019 shortlisted Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction Science Fiction Division Novel
Last amended 26 Sep 2023 08:27:11
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