Kate Grenville (born 14 October 1950) is an Australian novelist and teacher of creative writing. She holds degrees from the University of Sydney and the University of Colorado.
Life
Grenville was one of three children born to Kenneth Grenville Gee, a lawyer and later judge, and Isobel Russell, a pharmacist.[1] It was a family tradition that the children could choose a surname after leaving school. While the eldest brother retained the family name, Kate and her other brother chose Grenville, the name of their paternal grandmother.[1] She was a born writer and wanted to be one right from childhood.[2]. After completing her undergraduate degree in Australia, she worked in the film industry, mostly editing documentaries at Film Australia. In 1976, she went to the UK on a working holiday for six months, and ended up being away for seven years. She lived in London and Paris, and wrote fiction while supporting herself by doing 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. She returned to Australia in 1983 [3] and became a sub-editor at SBS Television in the subtitling department. She won a literary grant in 1986 and left SBS to pursue her writing. [4]
Kate Grenville lives in Sydney with her husband, Bruce Petty, son and daughter.
Grenville is learning to play the cello[3], including performing 'anonymously' in an amateur orchestra.
Career
Kate Grenville's reputation as a short story writer was made by the publication in 1984 of her collection Bearded Ladies[5] Her novel, Joan Makes History, was funded by the Bicentennial Authority.
She has had fellowships from the International Association of University Women and from the Literary Arts Board of the Australia Council.[5]
Two of her novels have been made into films: Dreamhouse, filmed as Traps (1994) and Lilian's Story (1995) which starred Toni Collette, as the young Lilian, and Ruth Cracknell, as the older Lilian.
Style and subject matter
Her style of writing includes detailed research for more than a year. This includes reading on the topic and actual experience in the place. After the research, she tries to use the language in the times the book is set in. This can be poetic. When questioned about it, she replied "I would never write a sentence that didn’t have a nice rhythm, or at least I wouldn’t leave it to be published like that." [6] She uses italics for direct speech since she tries to give the idea of continuity during dialogue. She gets the ideas for topics from life experiences. Her books are based on experiences that she wonders about. Her books are based on history with distortions so that readers would consider ideas that they might not otherwise want to deal with. One truth was distorted, but another was revealed.
Awards and Nominations
Prizes Won
Shortlisted
Bibliography
Short stories
Novels
Non-fiction
- The Writing Book: A Manual for Fiction Writers (1990) ISBN 0-04442124-9
- Making Stories: How Ten Australian Novels Were Written (1993), with Woolfe, Sue ISBN 1-86373316-7
- Writing from Start to Finish: a Six-Step Guide (2001)
- Searching for the Secret River (2006) ISBN 1-921145-39-0
Translations
Dutch
German
Italian
- La storia di Lilian, 1998
Portuguese
Notes
References
- Henderson, Gerard (2008) "A career upon life's pendulum: Ken Gee, 1915-2008" (Obituary) in The Sydney Morning Herald, 2008-03-19, p. 22
- Whitlock, Gillian (ed) (1989) Eight Voices of the Eighties: Stories, Journalism and Criticism by Australian Women Writers, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press
External links
| Persondata |
| NAME |
Grenville, Kate |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES |
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| SHORT DESCRIPTION |
Australian writer and teacher of creative writing |
| DATE OF BIRTH |
14 October 1950 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |
Sydney, N.S.W. |
| DATE OF DEATH |
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| PLACE OF DEATH |
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