Ms Michelle de Kretser
Discipline of English and Writing
Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka and emigrated to Australia when she was 14. Educated in Melbourne and Paris, Michelle has worked as a university tutor, an editor and a book reviewer.
She is the author of The Rose Grower, The Hamilton Case, which won the Commonwealth Prize (SE Asia and Pacific region) and the UK Encore Prize, and The Lost Dog, which was widely praised by writers such as AS Byatt, Hilary Mantel and William Boyd and won a swag of awards, including: the 2008 NSW Premier's Book of the Year Award and the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, and the 2008 ALS Gold Medal. The Lost Dog was also shortlisted for the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, the Western Australian Premier's Australia-Asia Literary Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Asia-Pacific Region) and Orange Prize's Shadow Youth Panel. It was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction. Questions of Travelwas the winner of the 2013 Miles Franklin Award, the Prime Ministers Literary Award for Fiction and the Western Australian Premier's Prize and Award for Fiction.
- co-founder of postgraduate journal, Antithesis
- 2023 Rathbones Folio Fiction Prize (UK) for 'Scary Monsters'
- 2023 'Scary Monsters' shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize (UK)
- 2022 'Scary Monsters' shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize
- 2022 'Scary Monsters' shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award
- 2019 Christina Stead Prize for fiction for The Life to Come
- 2018 Miles Franklin Award for The Life to Come
- 2014 NSW Premier's Book of the Year Award for Questions of Travel
- 2014 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction for Questions of Travel
- 2014 NSW Multicultural Award for Questions of Travel (joint winner)
- 2013 Miles Franklin Award for Questions of Travel
- 2013 Prime Ministers Literary Award for Fiction for Questions of Travel
- 2013 Western Australian Premier's Prize and Award for Fiction for Questions of Travel
- 2008 NSW Premier's Book of the Year Award for The Lost Dog
- 2008 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction for The Lost Dog
- 2008 ALS Gold Medal for The Lost Dog
Selected publications
(Allen and Unwin, 2021)
(Black Inc. Publishing, 2019)
(Allen and Unwin, 2017)
(Allen and Unwin, 2014)
(Allen and Unwin, 2012)
(Allen and Unwin, 2008)
(Vintage, 2004)
(Random House Australia, 2000)
Publications
Books
- de Kretser, M. (2019). On Shirley Hazzard: Writers on Writers. Melbourne, Australia: Black Inc. Publishing. [More Information]
Book Chapters
- de Kretser, M. (2017). Harrower's Things: Objects in The Watch Tower. In Elizabeth McMahon, Brigitta Olubas (Eds.), Elizabeth Harrower: Critical Essays, (pp. 9-11). Sydney: Sydney University Press. [More Information]
Textual Creative Works
- de Kretser, M. (2022). Winter Term. The Paris Review, 241, FALL 2022, (pp. 65 - 79). New York, United States of America: The Paris Review Foundation. [More Information]
- de Kretser, M. (2021). Scary Monsters, (pp. 1 - 305). Crows Nest, Sydney, Australia: Allen and Unwin. [More Information]
- de Kretser, M. (2017). The Life to Come, (pp. 1 - 375). Crows Nest, NSW, Australia: Allen and Unwin. [More Information]
2022
- de Kretser, M. (2022). Winter Term. The Paris Review, 241, FALL 2022, (pp. 65 - 79). New York, United States of America: The Paris Review Foundation. [More Information]
2021
- de Kretser, M. (2021). Scary Monsters, (pp. 1 - 305). Crows Nest, Sydney, Australia: Allen and Unwin. [More Information]
2019
- de Kretser, M. (2019). On Shirley Hazzard: Writers on Writers. Melbourne, Australia: Black Inc. Publishing. [More Information]
2017
- de Kretser, M. (2017). The Life to Come, (pp. 1 - 375). Crows Nest, NSW, Australia: Allen and Unwin. [More Information]
- de Kretser, M. (2017). Harrower's Things: Objects in The Watch Tower. In Elizabeth McMahon, Brigitta Olubas (Eds.), Elizabeth Harrower: Critical Essays, (pp. 9-11). Sydney: Sydney University Press. [More Information]
2015
- de Kretser, M. (2015). AFTERWORD Like a Thief in the Night. The Suburbs of Hell: Randolph Stow, (pp. 204 - 213). Melbourne, Australia: Text Publishing.
2014
- de Kretser, M. (2014). Springtime: A Ghost Story. Australia: Allen and Unwin. [More Information]
2012
- de Kretser, M. (2012). Questions of Travel. (pp. 1 - 517). London, United Kingdom: Allen and Unwin. [More Information]
- de Kretser, M. (2012). The Fictive Self. Harvard Review, 43, Cambridge, MA, United States of America: Harvard University.
2008
- de Kretser, M. (2008). The Lost Dog. Crows Nest, Australia: Allen and Unwin. [More Information]
2004
- de Kretser, M. (2004). The Hamilton Case. Milsons Point, Australia: Vintage. [More Information]
2000
- de Kretser, M. (2000). The Rose Grower. Milsons Point, Australia: Random House Australia. [More Information]
Alexandra Watkins (2016) Tourists, travellers, refugees: An interview with Michelle De Kretser, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 52:5, 572-580
In the media
- 11/07/2022 - interviewed in The Sydney Morning Herald: ‘A form of creative death’: Writer Michelle de Kretser’s fear of becoming stale