David Malouf
David George Joseph Malouf AO[1] (mah-LOOF;[2] born 20 March 1934) is an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright and librettist. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008, Malouf has lectured at both the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney. He also delivered the 1998 Boyer Lectures.
David Malouf | |
|---|---|
David Malouf at the 2019 Perth Festival Writers Week | |
| Born | 20 March 1934 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
| Occupation |
|
| Alma mater | University of Queensland |
| Period | 1962– |
| Genre |
|
| Notable works | |
| Notable awards | Grace Leven Prize for Poetry 1974 Australian Literature Society Gold Medal 1974 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction 1979 Pascall Prize 1988 Miles Franklin Award 1991 Prix Femina Étranger 1991 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction 1993 Prix Femina Étranger 1994 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction 1994 International Dublin Literary Award 1996 Neustadt International Prize for Literature 2000 Australia-Asia Literary Award 2008 Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature 2016 |
Malouf's 1974 collection Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems won the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry and the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. His 1990 novel The Great World won numerous awards, including the 1991 Miles Franklin Award and Prix Femina Étranger His 1993 novel Remembering Babylon was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the 1994 Prix Femina Étranger, the 1994 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, the 1995 Prix Baudelaire and the 1996 International Dublin Literary Award. Malouf was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2000, the Australia-Asia Literary Award in 2008 and the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature in 2016. He has been mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.[3]
Early life
Malouf was born in Brisbane, Australia, to a Christian Lebanese father and an English-born mother of Portuguese Sephardi Jewish descent. His paternal family had immigrated from Lebanon in the 1880s, while his mother's family had moved to England via the Netherlands, before migrating to Australia in 1913.[4]
He attended Brisbane Grammar School and graduated from the University of Queensland with a B.A. degree in 1955.[1] He lectured for a short period before moving to London, where he taught at Holland Park School, before relocating to Birkenhead in 1962.[5] He returned to Australia in 1968, taught at his old school,[6] and lectured in English at the Universities of Queensland and Sydney.[7]
Personal life
He has lived in England and Tuscany, and for the past three decades spent most of his time in Sydney.[7]
Writing
Though he would later become known abroad for his prose works, Malouf initially concentrated on poetry.[2][9] His first work appeared in 1962, as part of a book he shared with three more Australian poets.[2]
His collection Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems (1974) features childhood memories, his mother, his sister, travelling in Europe and war.[9]
1992 brought the publication of Poems, 1959–1989.[2] Some of his poetry was also collected in Revolving Days: Selected Poems (2008), which is divided into four sections: on childhood, then Europe, then relocating to Sydney, then travelling between Europe and Australia.[9]
Malouf's first novel, Johnno (1975), is the semi-autobiographical tale of a young man growing up in Brisbane during the Second World War.[10] Johnno engages in shoplifting and goes to brothels, which contrasts with his friend Dante's middle class conservatism.[9] La Boite Theatre adapted it for stage in 2006.[11][12]
Malouf began writing full-time in 1977.[1]
An Imaginary Life (1978) is about the final years of Ovid.[9]
Malouf's 1982 novella about three acquaintances and their experience of the First World War was titled Fly Away Peter.[13]
His epic novel The Great World (1990) tells the story of two Australians and their relationship amid the turmoil of two World Wars, including imprisonment by the Japanese during World War II.[10]
His Booker Prize-shortlisted novel Remembering Babylon (1993) is set in northern Australia during the 1850s amid a community of English immigrant farmers (with one Scottish family) whose isolated existence is threatened by the arrival of a stranger, a young white man raised from boyhood by Indigenous Australians.[9]
Malouf has written several collections of short stories, and a play, Blood Relations (1988).[7] Australian critic Peter Craven described Malouf's 2007 short-story collection Every Move You Make as "as formidable and bewitching a collection of stories as you would be likely to find anywhere in the English-speaking world".[6] Craven went on to state that "No one else in this country has: the maintenance of tone, the expertness of prose, the easeful transition between lyrical and realist effects. The man is a master, a superb writer, and also (which is not the same thing) a completely sophisticated literary gent".[6] The Complete Stories appeared in 2007.[9]
Malouf has also written libretti for three operas (including Voss, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Patrick White and first produced in the 1986 Adelaide Festival of Arts conducted by Stuart Challender), and Baa Baa Black Sheep (with music by Michael Berkeley), which combines a semi-autobiographical story by Rudyard Kipling with Kipling's Jungle Books.[7]
Malouf published his memoir, titled 12 Edmondstone Street, in 1985.[10]
Lecturing
Malouf delivered the 1998 Boyer Lectures on ABC Radio.[7]
Themes and subject matter
Malouf's work tends to be set in Australia, though "a European sensibility" is also present.[2]
His writing is characterised by a heightened sense of spatial relations, from the physical environments into which he takes his readers—whether within or outside built spaces, or in a natural landscape. He has likened each of his succession of novels to the discovery and exploration of a new room in a house, rather than part of an overarching development. "At a certain point, you begin to see what the connections are between things, and you begin to know what space it is you are exploring."[14] From his first novel Johnno onwards, his themes focused on "male identity and soul-searching".[6] He said that much of the male writing that preceded him "was about the world of action. I don't think that was ever an accurate description of men's lives".[6] He identified Patrick White as the writer who turned this around in Australian literature—that White's writing was the kind "that goes behind inarticulacy and or unwillingness to speak, writing that gives the language of feeling to people who don't have it themselves".[6]
Malouf also said that "I knew that the world around you is only uninteresting if you can't see what is really going on. The place you come from is always the most exotic place you'll ever encounter because it is the only place where you recognise how many secrets and mysteries there are in people's lives".[6] However, after nearly four decades of writing, he concluded that in older writers can sometimes be found "a fading of the intensity of the imagination, and ... of the interest in the tiny details of life and behaviour—you see [writers] getting a bit impatient with that."[15]
Awards and honours
As well as his numous accolades for fiction, Malouf was awarded the Pascall Prize for Critical Writing in 1988.[16] In 2008, Malouf won the Australian Publishers Association's Lloyd O'Neil Award for outstanding service to the Australian book industry.[17] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008.[18] He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.[1]
- 1974: Grace Leven Prize for Poetry, for Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems[19]
- 1974: Townsville Foundation for Australian Literary Studies Award, for Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems[19]
- 1974: Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, for Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems[9][19]
- 1974: Colin Roderick Award, for Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems[20]
- 1979: New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, for An Imaginary Life[7]
- 1982: The Age Book of the Year Award, for Fly Away Peter[7]
- 1983: Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, for Child's Play and Fly Away Peter[21]
- 1985: Victorian Premier's Literary Award, for Antipodes[1]
- 1990: National Library of Australia National Audio Book-of-the-Year Award joint winner, for The Great World[22]
- 1991 Miles Franklin Award, for The Great World[7]
- 1991: Commonwealth Writers' Prize (South East Asia and South Pacific Region, Best Book from the Region Award), for The Great World[10][23]
- 1991: Commonwealth Writers Prize, Overall Best Book Award, for The Great World[24]
- 1991: Prix Femina Étranger, for The Great World[10]
- 1991: Honorary doctorate from the University of Queensland[1]
- 1992: Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, National Fiction Award, for The Great World[25]
- 1993: New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, for Remembering Babylon[7]
- 1993: Booker Prize shortlist, for Remembering Babylon[26]
- 1994: Prix Femina Étranger, for Remembering Babylon[27]
- 1994: Commonwealth Writers Prize, South-East Asia and South Pacific Region, Best Book from the Region Award, for Remembering Babylon[28]
- 1994: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, for Remembering Babylon[29]
- 1994: National Book Council Banjo Award for Fiction shortlist, for Remembering Babylon[30]
- 1995: Prix Baudelaire (France), for Remembering Babylon[31]
- 1996: International Dublin Literary Award, for Remembering Babylon[7]
- 1996: The Age Book of the Year Award shortlist, for The Conversations at Curlow Creek[7]
- 1997: Miles Franklin Award shortlist, for The Conversations at Curlow Creek[7]
- 2000: Neustadt International Prize for Literature[32]
- 2007: The Age Book of the Year Award for Fiction, for Every Move You Make[10]
- 2007: The Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Australian Short Story Collection – Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Award[10]
- 2008: Australia-Asia Literary Award, for The Complete Stories[33][34]
- 2009: Q150 Icons of Queensland for his role as an "Influential Artist", announced as part of the Q150 celebrations[35]
- 2009: John D. Criticos Prize for Greek literature, for Ransom[36]
- 2011: International Dublin Literary Award shortlist, for Ransom[37]
- 2011: International Booker Prize shortlist[9]
- 2014: Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, for Earth Hour[38]
- 2016: Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature[39]
Selected bibliography
Novels
- Johnno (1975)[7]
- An Imaginary Life (1978)[7]
- Harland's Half Acre (1984)[7]
- The Great World (1990)[7]
- Remembering Babylon (1993)[7]
- The Conversations at Curlow Creek (1996)[7]
- Ransom (2009)[9]
Novella
- Fly Away Peter (1982)[7]
Short story collections
- Child's Play (1982)[7]
- Antipodes (1985)[7]
- Untold Tales (1999)[7]
- Dream Stuff (2000)[7]
- Every Move You Make (2006)[9]
- The Complete Stories (2007)[9]
Poetry collections
- Bicycle and Other Poems (1970)[7]
- Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems (1974)[7]
- Poems 1975–76 (1976)[7]
- First Things Last (1980)[7]
- Wild Lemons: Poems (1980)[7]
- Selected Poems 1959–1989 (1992)[2]
- Guide to the Perplexed and Other Poems (chapbook: Warners Bay, New South Wales: Picaro Press, 2007, 16pp)[40]
- Typewriter Music (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2007, 82pp)[41]
- Revolving Days: Selected Poems (2008)[9]
- Earth Hour. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. 2014. ISBN 978-0-7022-5257-0.[9]
- An Open Book (2018), University of Queensland Press, ISBN 978-0-7022-6030-8
Non-fiction
- 12 Edmondstone St (memoir – 1985)[7]
- "A Spirit of Play: The Making of Australian Consciousness", Boyer Lectures (1998)[42]
- Moore, David (Summer 2000). Photographs introduced by David Malouf. "Growing up". Granta. 70: 105–131.
- Made in England: Australia's British inheritance (Quarterly Essay, Black Inc – QE12 - November 2003)[43]
- On Experience (Little Books on Big Themes – 2008)[9]
- "The Happy Life" (Quarterly Essay, Black Inc – 2011)[9]
- The Writing Life: Book 2 (2014) ISBN 978-1458766397
Plays
- Blood Relations (1988)[7]
Libretti
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Dr David Malouf AO". University of Queensland. 5 January 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f "Biography". eNotes. 6 May 2015. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
- ^ "Murakami Projected to Win the Nobel Prize". 2012.
And the list goes on and on, including such contemporary literary greats as Kazuo Ishiguro, Ursula Le Guin, David Malouf, Salman Rushdie, A. S. Byatt, Milan Kundera, Julian Barnes, and John Ashbery...
- ^ "Malouf, David – Poet". Australian Poetry Library. from the original on 26 February 2018. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
- ^ David Malouf at British Council: Literature
- ^ a b c d e f g Gilling, Tom, "David Malouf: Writer", The Weekend Australian Magazine, 2–3 August 2008, p. 28
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af "Australian Authors – David Malouf". middlemiss.org. from the original on 22 July 2008.
- ^ Abblitt, Stephen. "Journeys and Outings: a case study in David Malouf's closet". Australian Geographer.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "David Malouf". British Council.
- ^ a b c d e f g . Archived from the original on 21 December 2007.
- ^ Tompkins, Joanne (1 May 2008). "Adapting Australian Novels for the Stage: La Boite Theatre's Version of Last Drinks, Perfect Skin, and Johnno". Australian Literary Studies. 23 (3).
This is not new for the theatre—Rosamond Siemon's The Mayne Inheritance was adapted by Errol O'Neill for the 2004 season, and several Nick Earls novels have been dramatised—but 2006 marks the first time that adaptations have dominated a season, with three of five plays based on novels of the same name. These vary significantly: David Malouf's 1975 Johnno, a classic of growing up in war-time Brisbane; Andrew McGahan's Last Drinks (2000), a recollection of the pre-Fitzgerald Inquiry era; and Perfect Skin (2000), another of Earls's comic novels.
- ^ "Johnno". La Boite Theatre. 2006.
- ^ "Fly Away Peter Analysis". Bartleby.com.
- ^ The Wordshed – David Malouf, in the House of Writing, Part 1 on YouTube, accessed 30 August 2009.
- ^ The Wordshed – David Malouf, in the House of Writing, Part 4 on YouTube, accessed 30 August 2009.
- ^ . Geraldine Pascall Foundation. Archived from the original on 21 July 2008.
- ^ . The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 June 2008. Archived from the original on 16 May 2009.
- ^ . Royal Society of Literature. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010.
- ^ a b c "Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems". AustLit.
- ^ "Neighbours In A Thicket: Poems". 1 December 1980.
- ^ "ALS Gold Medal". Association for the Study of Australian Literature. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
- ^ "TDK Australian Audio Book Award entries for 1990". 1990. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
- ^ (PDF). Commonwealth Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 October 2007.
- ^ "The Commonwealth Book Prize". Retrieved 3 October 2022.
- ^ "Previous award winners by category". Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
- ^ Heinke, Jörg. . University of the South Pacific. Archived from the original on 9 August 2007.
David Malouf's novel Remembering Babylon was shortlisted for the Booker Price in 1993...
- ^ "Remembering Babylon". AustLit. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
- ^ "Remembering Babylon". AustLit. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
- ^ "1994 Los Angeles Times Book Prize — Fiction Winner and Nominees". Awards Archive. 25 March 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
- ^ "Remembering Babylon". AustLit. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
- ^ "Prix Baudelaire (France)". AustLit.
- ^ "Neustadt Laureates: Past Laureates". World Literature Today. 7 January 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
- ^ Steger, Jason (22 November 2008). "Rich pickings for Malouf". The Age. Melbourne.
- ^ "Australia's Malouf wins literary prize". Dawn. Karachi. 23 November 2008.
- ^ Bligh, Anna (10 June 2009). . Queensland Government. Archived from the original on 24 May 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
- ^ "Past Winners", 18 February 2013
- ^ "William Trevor makes an Impact" 23 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine, The Irish Times, 12 April 2011.
- ^ "NSW Premier's Literary Awards" (PDF). SL Magazine. 8 (4): 35. Summer 2016.
- ^ "Australia Council honours leading artists with 2016 awards". Australia Council. from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ^ "Guide to the Perplexed and Other Poems". AustLit.
- ^ Duwell, Martin (1 July 2007). "David Malouf: Typewriter Music". Australian Poetry Review.
- ^ "A Spirit of Play: The Making of Australian Consciousness". Radio National. 15 August 2006. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
- ^ Made in England: Australia's British inheritance. Quarterly Essay. 7 November 2014.
- ^ "Subseries Subseries 7 - Jane Eyre [Libretto]". University of Queensland Library.
Further reading
- Giffuni, Cathe. "The Prose of David Malouf", Australian & New Zealand Studies in Canada, No. 7, June 1992.
- James, Clive. "A Memory called Malouf" New York Review, 21 December 2000.
External links
- Media related to David Malouf at Wikimedia Commons
- David Malouf at Random House Australia