AUSTRALIA

ASTLEY, Thea

Birth date: 1925
Birthplace: Brisbane, Australia.
Education: All Hallows Convent, University of Queensland.
Professional Career: Taught High School with the New South Wales Education Department, and became Senior Tutor at Macquarie University in 1968. She retired from her position as Fellow in Australian Literature at Macquarie University in 1980. Astley received the 1962, 1965 and 1972 Miles Franklin Awards, and the 1975 and 1996 Age Book of the Year Award.

Works

Collected Stories. New York: Penguin, 1997.
The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow. New York: Penguin, 1996.
Coda. Random House, 1994.
Vanishing Points. Random House, 1992.
Reaching Tin River. Minerva, 1990.
It's Raining in Mango. New York: Penguin, 1987.
Beachmasters. New York: Penguin, 1985.
An Item from the Late News. New York: Penguin, 1982.
Hunting the Wild Pineapple, and other related stories. New York: Penguin, 1979.
Being a Queenslander. Publisher Unknown, 1978.
A Kindness Cup. New York: Penguin, 1974.
The Acolyte. St. Lucia, NY: UQP, 1972.
A Boat Load of Home Folk. New York: Penguin, 1968.
The Slow Natives. New York: Penguin, 1965.
A Well Dressed Explorer. Angus and Robertson, 1962.
A Descant for Gossips. St. Lucia, NY: University of Queensland Press, 1960.
Girl With a Monkey. Angus and Robertson, 1958.

BARANAY, Inez

Birth date: 1949
Birthplace: Naples, Italy
Education:
Professional Career: Inez Baranay began publishing short prose fiction in independently published and then main-stream anthologies in the early 1980's. Based in Sydney for most of her life, Baranay has traveled in Europe, Papua New Guinea, India, the United States, South East Asia, and Morocco and often sets her writing in overseas locations. She is currently living in Brisbane and working on her latest book.

Works

Sheila Power. Allen and Unwin, 1997.
Rascal Rain: a year in Papua New Guinea. ETT Imprint, 1994.
The Edge of Bali. Angus and Robertson, 1992.
Pagan. Publisher Unknown, 1990.
The Saddest Pleasure. Publisher Unknown, 1989.
Between Careers. Publisher Unknown, 1989.

DARVILLE, Helen (aka Helen Demidenko)

Birth date: 1971
Birthplace: Brisbane, Australia.
Education: Educated at the University of Queensland.
Professional Career: Her first novel, The Hand that Signed the Paper won the Australian/Vogel Literary Award, the Miles Franklin Award and the Australian Literature Society (ALS) Gold Medal. It is regarded as one of the most controversial books ever published in Australia, raising issues of identity in and responsibility for ethnic genocide during World War II. She is currently working on her second novel, The Architect.

Works

The Hand that Signed the Paper. St. Leonards, N.S.W., Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1994.

GARNER, Helen

Birth date: 1942
Birthplace: Geelong, Australia
Education: Educated at Melbourne University.
Professional Career: Helen Garner worked as a high school teacher in Victoria, until she was fired for using "gutter language" in 1972. She has since worked as a journalist, freelance feature writer and theater reviewer. Her first novel, Monkey Grip (1977), won the National Book Council Award. Garner has received several fellowships from the Australia Council Literature Board and has been writer-in-residence in Tokyo, at Griffith University in Queensland and at the University of Western Australia.

Works

My Hard Heart. New York: Penguin, 1998.
True Stories. The Text Publishing Company, 1997.
The First Stone: some questions about sex and power. Picador, 1995.
Cosmo Cosmolino. New York: Penguin, 1992.
Postcards from Surfers: stories. New York: Penguin, 1985.
The Children's Bach. New York: Penguin, 1984.
Moving Out. Publisher Unknown, 1983.
Honour,&, Other People's Children: two stories. McPhee Gribble, 1980.
Monkey Grip. New York: Penguin, 1977.

GINIBI, Ruby Langford

Birth date: 1934
Birthplace: Box Ridge Mission at Coraki, Australia
Education:
Professional Career: Ruby Langford-Ginibi is an Aboriginal writer. She is a fiercely proud Bundjalung woman. She is also an author, historian and lecturer on Aboriginal history, culture and politics as well as mother to nine, grandmother to twenty one and great-grandmother to three. Penguin published Ruby Langford-Ginibi 's life story, Don't Take Your Love to Town in 1988, the Bi-Centennial year of Britain's colonization of Australia. Collins Imprint published her second book, Real Deadly, in 1992. My Bundjalung People, published by Queensland University Press in 1994, tells of Ginibi going back to the mission in Coraki to find her people and place after a 48-year absence. Ginibi was awarded the Human Rights Award for Literature for Don't Take Your Love to Town in 1988. She received an inaugural history fellowship from the Ministry of Arts in 1990, an inaugural honorary fellowship from the Australian National Museum, Canberra, in 1995, and an inaugural doctorate of letters (Honors Causia) from La Trobe University, Victoria, on May 1, 1998.

Works

My Bundjalung People. Penguin, 1994.
Real Deadly. Penguin, 1992.
Don't Take Your Love to Town. Penguin, 1988.

GOONERATNE, Yasmine

Birth date: 1935
Birthplace: Sri Lanka
Education: Educated at the Universities of Celon and Cambridge.
Professional Career: Yasmine Gooneratne became an Australian resident in 1972. She holds a personal chair of English at Macquarie University and was the foundation Director of the Post-Colonial Literatures and Language Research Centre. She has been a visiting professor at Edith Cowan University, the University of Michigan and the University of the South Pacific. Gooneratne has published sixteen books, including two novels and several volumes of poetry. Her first novel, A Change of Skies, won the 1992 Marjorie Bernard Literary Award for Fiction and was short listed for the 1991 Commonwealth Fiction Prize. Her second novel, The pleasures of conquest was short listed for the 1996 Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Works

The Pleasures of Conquest. Vintage, 1993.
A Change of Skies. Picador, 1989.
The Lizard's Cry and other poems. Publisher Unknown, 1971-2.
Word, Bird, Motif: poems. Publisher Unknown, 1970.

GREER, Germaine

Birth date: 1939
Birthplace: Victoria, Australia
Education: Received a bachelor's degree from the University of Melbourne, a master's degree from the University of Sydney, and a doctorate from the University of Cambridge.
Professional Career: Renowned for her thinking about women and their roles in society, Greer began at an early age to challenge traditional concepts as a scholarship student at a convent school near Melbourne. A gifted linguist, Greer was also drawn to art, music, and literature. After earning her doctorate in 1967, she became a lecturer at the University of Warwick. At the same time she expressed an avid interest in rock music and England's counterculture by writing articles for underground magazines.

Works

Slip-Shod Sybils. Viking, 1995.
The Change: Women, Aging, and the Menopause. Penguin, 1992.
Daddy, We Hardly Knew You. Penguin, 1989.
The Madwoman's Underclothes. Picador, 1986.
Shakespeare. Oxford, 1986.
Sex and Destiny: The Politics of Human Fertility. Publisher Unknown, 1984.
The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work. Publisher Unknown, 1979.
The Female Eunuch. Flamingo, 1970.

GRENVILLE, Kate

Birth date: 1950
Birthplace: Sydney, Australia
Education: Completed a BA honours degree at Sydney University, majoring in English Literature.
Professional Career: Kate Grenville first went to work in the film industry, mostly editing documentaries. In the late 1970s she went to the UK on a working holiday for six months, and didn't return for seven years. She started to write while living in London and Paris, supporting herself by various film-editing, writing, and secretarial jobs. In 1980, she went to the University of Colorado at Boulder to do a Masters degree in Creative Writing. While there, she put together a collection of short stories (later to become Bearded Ladies), and wrote a novel which later became Dreamhouse. As a Teaching Assistant at the university she also taught Composition and Creative Writing to undergraduates. She returned to Australia in 1983 with an unfinished novel which became Lilian's Story. Bearded Ladies was published in 1984 and the next year Lilian's Story won the Vogel/Australian award for an unpublished book. Dreamhouse was published the following year. Joan Makes History was commissioned by the Australian Government as part of its Bicentennial activities and was published in 1988. Her latest novel is The Idea of Perfection (1999, Picador).

Works

The Idea of Perfection. Picador, 1999.
Dark Places. Picador, 1994.
Joan Makes History. UQP, 1988.
Dreamhouse. UQP, 1987.
Lilian's Story. Allen and Unwin, 1985.
Bearded Ladies. University of Queensland Press, 1984.

JOLLEY, Elizabeth

Birth date: 1923
Birthplace: Birmingham, England
Education: Educated in the English Midlands, both at home and at a Quaker boarding school.
Professional Career: Elizabeth Jolley began nursing studies at age 17 at the height of World War II. She migrated to Western Australia with her husband and three children in 1959, and worked a variety of jobs until she began as a part-time creative writing tutor at the Fremantle Arts Centre in 1974. She has also taught at Curtin University. She won the Age Book of the Year Award (for Mr Scobie's Riddle, My Father's Moon and The Georges' Wife) as well as the Miles Franklin Award for The Well. She has also won the Western Australian Premier's Prize in 1983 and 1993.

Works

An Accommodating Spouse. Penguin, 1999.
Lovesong. Viking, 1997.
The Orchard Thieves. Penguin, 1995.
The Georges' Wife. Penguin, 1993.
Cabin Fever. Penguin, 1990.
My Father's Moon. Penguin, 1989.
The Sugar Mother. Penguin, 1988.
The Well. Penguin, 1986.
Foxybaby. UQP, 1985.
Milk and Honey. The Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1984.
Mr Scobie's Riddle. Penguin, 1983.
Woman in a Lampshade. Penguin, 1983.
Miss Peabody's Inheritance. UQP, 1983.
The Newspaper of Claremont Street. The Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1981.
Palomino. University of Queensland Press, 1980.
The Travelling Entertainer. Publisher Unknown, 1979.
The Five Acre Virgin. Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1976.

HOSPITAL, Janette Turner

Birth date: 1942
Birthplace: Victoria, Australia
Education: Graduated from the University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia (B.A., 1965), and Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada (M.A., 1973).
Professional Career: Hospital taught in several colleges and universities in Canada, the United States, and Australia and lived for a while in India.

Works

Isobars. UQP, 1990.
Dislocations. UQP, 1986.
A Very Proper Death. Publisher Unknown, 1990, under the name Alex Juniper.
Oyster. Random House, 1996.
The Last Magician. UQP, 1992.
Charades. UQP, 1988.
Borderline. Hodder and Stoughton, 1985.
Tiger in the Tiger Pit. UQP, 1983.
The Ivory Swing. University of Queensland Press, 1982.

KER CONWAY, Jill

Birth date: 1936
Birthplace: Hillston, Australia
Education: Graduated from the University of Sydney in 1958, and received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1969.
Professional Career: From 1964 - 1975, Jill Ker Conway taught in the University of Toronto and was Vice President there until she became President of Smith College in 1975. Since 1985, she has been a Visiting Scholar and Professor in M.I.T.'s Program in Science and lives in Milton, Massachusetts.

Works

The Road from Coorain. Vintage, 1990.

MODJESKA, Drusilla

Birth date: 1946
Birthplace: England
Education:
Professional Career: Drusilla Modjeska has lived in Australia since 1971. She is a writer, feminist and academic. She taught in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of the NSW Institute of Technology.

Works

Stravinsky's Lunch. Picador, 1999.
Sisters. Harper Collins, 1995.
The Orchard. MacMillan, 1994.
Poppy. MacMillan, 1990.

MORGAN, Sally

Birth date: 1951
Birthplace: Perth, Australia
Education: Completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at The University of Western Australia in 1974, majoring in Psychology. She also has post-graduate diplomas from the Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University of Technology) in both Counselling Psychology and Computing and Library Studies.
Professional Career: Sally Morgan is an Aboriginal writer who grew up in suburban Perth. In 1972 Sally married Paul Morgan, a fellow student. They have three children. My Place is Sally Morgan's first book, and upon publication it immediately achieved best-seller status. It has since sold over half a million copies in Australia, and been published in the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Malaysia, Italy, Indonesia, Japan, Germany, France, Switzerland and Holland. Her second book, Wanamurraganya, was published in 1989. She has also written five books for children, Little Piggies, Pet Problem, Just A Little Brown Dog, Dan's Grandpa and In Your Dreams. As well as writing, Sally Morgan has established an international reputation as an artist. She has works in numerous private and public collections in Australia and the United States of America. She is currently Director of the Centre for Indigenous History and the Arts at The University of Western Australia.

Works

Mother and Daughter. The Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2000.
Wanamurraganya: The Story of Jack McPhee. The Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1989.
My Place. The Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1987.

WARD, Glenyse

Birth date: 1949
Birthplace: Wandering, Australia
Education:
Professional Career: Glenyse Ward is an Aboriginal writer who, at aged one, was taken from her natural parents under the Australian Government policy of "assimilating" Aboriginal children. Ward grew up in a Catholic orphanage and was "placed" in a white home as a domestic servant at the age of 15. She eventually escaped from the "assimilation" system and worked in Western Australian hospitals as a domestic and then a nursing assistant. She has written two books about her life and is working on a third. She currently lives in Broome, Western Australia, with her husband and two children.

Works

Unna You Fullas. Magabala Books, 1991.
Wandering Girl. Magabala Books, 1987.

YAHP, Beth

Birth date: 1964
Birthplace: Malaysia
Education:
Professional Career: Beth Yahp came to Australia in 1984. Her short fiction, essays and articles have appeared in a range of anthologies, magazines and newspapers in Australia, South-east Asia and Europe, and she has edited or co-edited several collections of stories and essays. Her novel The Crocodile Fury (Flamingo, 1996) won the Victorian Premier's Prize for First Fiction and the NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission Award. It has been published in Singapore, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and is forthcoming in Greece in 2000. Beth is currently working on her second novel.

Works

Nothing Interesting About Cross Street. Publisher Unknown, 1996.
The Crocodile Fury. Harper Collins, 1996.
Family Pictures. 1994.
My Look's Caress: A Collection of Modern Romances. Publisher Unknown, 1990.