Michelle de Kretser | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1957 (age 67–68) |
| Citizenship | Australian |
| Alma mater | University of Melbourne |
| Notable works | The Hamilton Case;The Lost Dog;Questions of Travel;The Life to Come |
| Notable awards | Miles Franklin Award (2013, 2018) Christina Stead Prize for Fiction (2008, 2014, 2019) |
| Partner | Chris Andrews |
Michelle de Kretser (born 1957) is an Australian novelist who was born inSri Lanka (thenCeylon). She is a two-time winner of theMiles Franklin Award who has won theChristina Stead Prize for Fiction on three occasions.
Born inSri Lanka (thenCeylon), de Kretser moved to Australia in 1972 when she was 14.[1] Her father wasOswald Leslie De Kretser III, a judge of the Supreme Court of Ceylon.[2]
She was educated atMethodist College, Colombo,[3] in Melbourne atElwood College, and in Paris.
She worked as an editor for a travel guides companyLonely Planet, and while on a sabbatical in 1999, wrote and published her first novel,The Rose Grower. Her second novel,The Hamilton Case, was winner of the Tasmania Pacific Prize, theEncore Award (in the UK) and theCommonwealth Writers' Prize (Southeast Asia and Pacific). Her third novel,The Lost Dog, was published in 2007. It was one of 13 books on the longlist for the 2008Man Booker Prize.
From 1989 to 1992, she was a founding editor of theAustralian Women's Book Review. Her fourth novel,Questions of Travel, won several awards, including the 2013Miles Franklin Award, the 2013ALS Gold Medal, and the 2013Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction. It was also shortlisted for the 2014International Dublin Literary Award.
Her 2017 novel,The Life to Come, was shortlisted for the 2018Stella Prize, and won both the Miles Franklin Award and theChristina Stead Prize for Fiction. This is the third time Michelle de Kretser has won this prize and equalsPeter Carey's record of wins.[4]
Her novelTheory & Practice (2024) starts as one novel but is interrupted by another. As a whole, the novel asks what is the real relationship between theory and practice. One of its central themes is how heroes of fiction and theory often let us down. For instance, Virginia Woolf is held up as a hero to the protagonist, but Woolf's antisemitism and her racism becomes impossible for the narrator to ignore. She "writes back" to Woolf. The theme of women not living up to feminist values in real life - in practice - is explored through the narrator's relationship with Kit, who is already in a relationship with Olivia. Or the narrator's rejection of her own mother.
