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Roanna Gonsalves Roanna Gonsalves i(A119097 works by)
Gender: Female
Arrived in Australia: 1998
Heritage: Indian
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BiographyHistory

Roanna Gonsalves (PhD., UNSW) is the author of The Permanent Resident (UWAP), published in India as Sunita De Souza Goes To Sydney (Speaking Tiger). The book won the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Multicultural Prize 2018, and was longlisted for the Dobbie Literary Award 2018. It is on several lists of must-read books, and on the syllabi of university courses. Her work has been compared to the work of Alice Munro and Jhumpa Lahiri. Her four-part radio documentary series, On the Tip of a Billion Tongues (ABC RN Earshot) is an acerbic socio-political portrayal of contemporary India through its multilingual writers.

Her many honours include the Prime Minister’s Australia-Asia Endeavour Award, an Australian Writers’ Guild Award, and fellowships at Varuna and Bundanon. Roanna was the UNSW CAL Writer-in-Residence 2018, is founding co-editor of Southern Crossings, and sits on the Board of Writing NSW. She has been an invited keynote speaker and guest at several writers’ festivals, and is a highly regarded teacher and workshop facilitator. Her research interests include the sociology of the arts, social media, creativity studies, publishing studies, and postcolonial literatures. In 2019, she was teaching at a number of universities in Sydney, and can be found at @roannagonsalves.

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

2020 recipient Australia Council Grants, Awards and Fellowships International Development India Literature Exploratory      $3,000 
2017 recipient Australia Council Grants, Awards and Fellowships Literature Board Fellowship Literature Arts Projects For Individuals and Groups $49,000.00
2008 Australia Council Literature Board Grants Grants for Emerging Writers $15,000

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Permanent Resident Crawley : UWA Publishing , 2016 10167352 2016 selected work short story

'A woman who can’t swim wades into a suburban pool. An Indian family sits down to an Australian Christmas dinner. A single mother’s offer to coach her son’s soccer team leads to an unexpected encounter. A recent migrant considers taking the fall for a second generation ‘friend’. A wife refuses to let her husband look at her phone. An international student gets off a train at night.

'Roanna Gonsalves’ short stories unearth the aspirations, ambivalence and guilt laced through the lives of 21st century immigrants, steering through clashes of cultures, trials of faith, and squalls of racism. Sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes playful, they cut to the truth of what it means to be a modern outsider.' (Publication summary)

2018 longlisted Kibble Literary Awards Nita May Dobbie Award
2018 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Multicultural NSW
Yet to Ascertain the Nature of the Crime 2010 single work drama
2011 winner AWGIE Awards Community Theatre Award Community and Youth Theatre
Last amended 20 Jan 2020 16:35:18
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