Special Achievements

Kate Grenville is an Australian author. She has published widely , including fiction, non-fiction, biography, and books about the writing process.

Her books have been awarded many prizes in Australia, as well as the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (2006) and Britain's Orange Prize. Her novel The Secret River was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2006, making Kate Grenville the first Australian female to be nominated and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.  

Grenville's early fiction presented characters trying to free themselves from social and gender stereotypes.  Her later fiction,  (the three linked novels The Secret River, The Lieutenant and Sarah Thornhill) address issues of early settlement and Indigenous dispossession,  and the ongoing dark legacy of colonial times

Additional Information

Awards and Nominations

• Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA) in 2008
• Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of New South Wales in 2010
• Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Sydney in 2012
•  Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Macquarie University in 2013
• The Dixson Medal awarded by the Library Council of New South Wales in 2014
• The Australia Council  Lifetime Award for Literature in 2017

Prizes

• 1984 – The Australian/Vogel Literary Award for Lilian's Story
• 1995 – Victorian Premier's Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction for "Dark Places"
•  2001 – Orange Prize for Fiction for The Idea of Perfection
•  2006 – Commonwealth Writers' Prize for The Secret River
•  2006 – New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for fiction for The Secret River
•  2006 – New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Community Relations Commission Award for The Secret River

Shortlisted

• 2006 – The Secret River – Miles Franklin Award and the Man Booker Prize.

Image - Kate Grenville

Permission granted to use image by Jane Novak. Photographer: Darren James

Link - Kate Grenville's website

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