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Amanda Lohrey Amanda Lohrey i(A20535 works by) (a.k.a. Amanda Frances Lillian Lohrey)
Born: Established: 1947 Hobart, Southeast Tasmania, Tasmania, ;
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Amanda Lohrey completed her education at the University of Tasmania before winning a scholarship to Cambridge University. Returning to Australia without completing her course, Lohrey worked for several years as a research officer before her appointment as a lecturer in writing and textual studies at the University of Technology, Sydney, from 1988 to 1994.

Lohrey published her first novel, The Morality of Gentlemen, in 1984, but her second novel, The Reading Group (1989), was subject to the threat of a defamation action by a Tasmanian senator. These novels are highly regarded for their exploration of the social and political evil in which ordinary people involuntarily participate. Lohrey's best-known novel is Camille's Bread (1995) which won a number of awards and was short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award. A story of alternative living, Camille's Bread, explores the effect that multi-cultural ideologies have on the relationship between a single mother, her child and partner. Camille's Bread is admired for its use of food as a metaphor for these relationships. Lohrey also collaborated on the novel Secrets (1997) with Robert Dessaix and Drusilla Modjeska.

In addition to her fiction, Lohrey is highly regarded for her essays, reviews and journalism, appearing regularly in newspapers and periodicals. (As an example, see 'Groundswell: The Rise of the Greens', a 20,000 word essay published in Quarterly Essay no.8, 2002.)

From 1988 to 1994, Lohrey lectured in writing and textual studies at the University of Technology, Sydney. In 2002, Lohrey was appointed as lecturer in the (then) School of English, Media Studies and Art History (now Communication and Arts) at The University of Queensland, after which she returned to Tasmania.

Lohrey won a residency under the 2005 Asialink Writers' Residencies programme, during which she planned to build on a long-standing interest in India to advance two works-in-progress. Her subsequent awards have included a Literature Board Fellowship from the Australia Council, the Patrick White Award, and an Australia Council Grant for established writers.

Her works have been shortlisted for a wide range of awards, and have won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award and the Victorian Premier's Literary Award.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Labyrinth Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2020 19549542 2020 single work novel

'Erica Marsden’s son, an artist, has been imprisoned for homicidal negligence. In a state of grief, Erica cuts off all ties to family and friends, and retreats to a quiet hamlet on the south-east coast near the prison where he is serving his sentence.

'There, in a rundown shack, she obsesses over creating a labyrinth by the ocean. To build it—to find a way out of her quandary—Erica will need the help of strangers. And that will require her to trust, and to reckon with her past.

'The Labyrinth is a hypnotic story of guilt and denial, of the fraught relationship between parents and children, that is also a meditation on how art can both be ruthlessly destructive and restore sanity. It shows Amanda Lohrey to be at the peak of her powers.' (Publication summary)

2021 shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards Fiction
2021 shortlisted Voss Literary Prize
2021 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards Fiction Book Award
2021 shortlisted The Age Book of the Year Award Book of the Year
2021 winner Miles Franklin Literary Award
2021 longlisted ASAL Awards ALS Gold Medal
y separately published work icon A Short History of Richard Kline : A Novel Melbourne : Black Inc. , 2015 8162810 2015 single work novel

'“I woke with a gasp. And lay in the dark, open-mouthed, holding my breath. That feeling ... that feeling was indescribable. For a moment I had felt as if I were falling ... falling into bliss.”

'All his life, Richard Kline has been haunted by a sense that something is lacking. He envies the ease with which some people slip – seemingly unquestioningly – into contented suburban life or the pursuit of wealth.

'As he moves into middle age, Richard grows increasingly angry. But then a strange event awakens him to a different way of living. He finds himself on a quest, almost against his own will, to resolve the 'divine discontent' he has suffered since childhood. From pharmaceuticals to new age therapies and finding a guru, Richard's journey dramatises the search for meaning in today's world.

'This moving and audacious novel is a pilgrim's progress for the here and now. Suffused with yearning and a sense of the mystical, this extraordinary novel is one of Lohrey's finest offerings yet.' (Publication summary)

2016 longlisted The Stella Prize
2015 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards Fiction Book Award
2015 shortlisted Tasmania Book Prizes Margaret Scott Prize
y separately published work icon Reading Madame Bovary Collingwood : Black Inc. , 2010 Z1722620 2010 selected work short story

'A woman finds her everyday life engulfed by vivid fantasies, a businessman explores new ways to deal with his rage, a young woman is stuck on a boat with a bunch of delinquents, a diary is discovered, a commune goes wrong ...

'In this captivating collection of short fiction, award-winning novelist Amanda Lohrey explores the dilemmas of modern life. Her characters find themselves caught between body and spirit, memory and desire, ambition and mortality - and they must transform themselves or be trapped.' (From the publisher's website.)

2013 shortlisted Tasmania Book Prizes Margaret Scott Prize
2011 winner Queensland Premier's Literary Awards Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award
2011 winner Queensland Premier's Literary Awards Best Fiction Book
2011 shortlisted South East Asia and South Pacific Region Best Book

Known archival holdings

University of New South Wales Australian Defence Force Academy Australian Defence Force Academy Library (ACT)
Last amended 14 Nov 2017 12:40:02
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