Andrea Goldsmith
Encyclopedia
Life
Goldsmith was born in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, to an Australian-Jewish family. She started learning the piano as a young child, and music remains an abiding passion. She initially trained as a speech pathologist and worked for several years with children with severe communication impairment until becoming a full-time writer in the late 1980s. During the 1990s she taught creative writing at Deakin University
Deakin University
Deakin University is an Australian public university with nearly 40,000 higher education students in 2010. It receives more than A$600 million in operating revenue annually, and controls more than A$1.3 billion in assets. It received more than A$35 million in research income in 2009 and had 835...
, and she continues to conduct workshops and mentor new novelists.
She travels widely, and London, in particular, figures prominently in her novels. At the same time, she describes herself as 'a deeply Melbourne person'.
Goldsmith lived with her partner, the poet Dorothy Porter
Dorothy Porter
Dorothy Featherstone Porter was an Australian poet.-Early life:Porter was born in Sydney. Her father was barrister Chester Porter and her mother, Jean, was a high school chemistry teacher. Porter attended the Queenwood School for Girls...
, in Melbourne's inner suburbs until Porter's death in 2008.
Literary career
Andrea Goldsmith has published six novels. Rich in ideas and characterisation, they tell of contemporary life in all its diversity. Narratives of ambition, love, family, art, music and relationships abound in her books.She also writes literary essays on topics as diverse as Oliver Sacks
Oliver Sacks
Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE , is a British neurologist and psychologist residing in New York City. He is a professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University, where he also holds the position of Columbia Artist...
('Oliver Sacks: Anthropologist of Mind'), nuclear physics
Nuclear physics
Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons technology, but the research has provided application in many fields, including those...
and life-threatening illness ('Chain Reaction') and Jewish-Australian identity ('Talmudic Excursions'). She is a lively and dramatic performer of her work and reads regularly at venues throughout Australia. She was lecturer in creative writing at Deakin University in Melbourne (1995-8) and while writer-in-residence at La Trobe University
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a multi-campus university in Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1964 by an Act of Parliament to become the third oldest university in the state of Victoria. The main campus of La Trobe is located in the Melbourne suburb of Bundoora; two other major campuses are...
she edited an anthology written by a group of people with gambling problems, called Calling A Spade A Spade. She conducts workshops and short courses for writers of fiction, and she mentors new novelists.
She has been a guest at all the major literary festivals in Australia. Her interview at the 2009 Sydney Writers' Festival
Sydney Writers' Festival
The Sydney Writers' Festival is an annual literary festival held in the Australian city of Sydney. The Festival's artistic director is Chip Rolley.-History:...
can be viewed through Slow TV at
http://www.themonthly.com.au/reunion-andrea-goldsmith-conversation-drusilla-modjeska-1689
Awards
| The Miles Franklin Award Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize for the best Australian ‘published novel or play portraying Australian life in any of its phases’. The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin , who is best known for writing the Australian classic My Brilliant Career ... |
The Prosperous Thief, shortlisted 2003 |
| NBC Banjo Awards, NBC Lysbeth Cohen Memorial Prize | Modern Interiors, shortlisted 1993 |
Novels
- Gracious Living (Penguin, 19901990 in literatureThe year 1990 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*J. K. Rowling gets the idea for Harry Potter while on a train ride from Manchester to London. She says "I was staring out the window, and the idea for Harry just came. He appeared in my mind's eye, very fully formed...
) - Modern Interiors (Penguin, 19911991 in literatureThe year 1991 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Douglas Coupland publishes the novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularizing the term Generation X as the name of the generation....
) - Facing the Music (Penguin, 19941994 in literatureThe year 1994 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Kevin J. Anderson - Champions of the Force, Dark Apprentice and Jedi Search*Reed Arvin - The Wind in the Wheat*Greg Bear - Songs of Earth and Power...
) - Under the Knife (Penguin, 19981998 in literatureThe year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première....
) - The Prosperous Thief (Allen&Unwin, 20022002 in literatureThe year 2002 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 16: Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrested and jailed poet Abdul Mohsen Musalam and fired a newspaper editor following the publication of Musalam's poem The Corrupt on Earth that criticized the state's Islamic...
) - Reunion (HarperCollins, 20092009 in literatureThe year 2009 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*8 October - Romanian-born German novelist Herta Müller wins the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature....
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