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Sofie Laguna Sofie Laguna i(A69209 works by)
Born: Established: 1968 Sydney, New South Wales, ;
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Sofie Laguna trained as a lawyer, but has since worked as an author, actor, and playwright. She graduated as an actor from the Victorian College of Arts in 1992. She has also studied Professional Writing and Editing at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Laguna began publishing stories for children in the early 2000s and published ten children's books and picture books before she released her first novel for adults, One Foot Wrong, in 2008. She has continued to write for children, but has also published two more highly acclaimed novels for adults: The Eye of the Sheep and The Choke. Laguna's children's books are regularly honour books at the Children's Book Council Book of the Year Awards, and The Eye of the Sheep won the 2015 Miles Franklin Award (for which she had been longlisted in 2009 for One Foot Wrong).

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

2019 recipient Australia Council Grants, Awards and Fellowships

Literature Arts Projects For Individuals and Groups $25,000.00

2014 recipient Australia Council Grants, Awards and Fellowships New Work - Established Writers 14-15 Fiction
2006 Australia Council Literature Board Grants Grants for Established Writers $30,000 for young adult literature writing

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Infinite Splendours Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2020 19846353 2020 single work novel

'Lawrence Loman is a bright, caring, curious boy with a gift for painting. He lives at home with his mother and younger brother, and the future is laid out before him, full of promise. But when he is ten, an experience of betrayal takes it all away, and Lawrence is left to deal with the devastating aftermath.

'As he grows into a man, how will he make sense of what he has suffered? He cannot rewrite history, but must he be condemned to repeat it?

'Lawrence finds meaning in the best way he knows. By surrendering himself to art and nature, he creates beauty - beauty made all the more astonishing and soulful for the deprivation that gives rise to it.

'Infinite Splendours is an extraordinary novel, incandescent with love and compassion, rich in colour and character. The power and virtuosity of Laguna's writing make it impossible for us to look away; and by being seen, Lawrence is redeemed.

'And we, as readers, have had our minds and hearts opened in ways we can't forget.' (Publication summary)

2021 winner Colin Roderick Award
2021 longlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
2021 longlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Australian Literary Fiction Book of the Year
2021 longlisted Indie Awards Fiction
y separately published work icon The Choke Sydney : Allen and Unwin , 2017 11520939 2017 single work novel

'Abandoned by her mother and only occasionally visited by her secretive father, Justine is raised by her pop, a man tormented by visions of the Burma Railway. Justine finds sanctuary in Pop's chooks and The Choke, where the banks of the Murray River are so narrow it seems they might touch - a place of staggering natural beauty. But the river can't protect Justine from danger. Her father is a criminal, and the world he exposes her to can be lethal.

'Justine is overlooked and underestimated, a shy and often silent observer of her chaotic world. She learns that she has to make sense of it on her own. She has to find ways to survive so much neglect. She must hang on to friendship when it comes, she must hide when she has to, and ultimately she must fight back.

'The Choke is a brilliant, haunting novel about a child navigating an often dark and uncaring world of male power and violence, in which grown-ups can't be trusted and comfort can only be found in nature. This compassionate and claustrophobic vision of a child in danger and a society in trouble celebrates above all the indomitable nature of the human spirit.' (Synopsis)

2019 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
2018 shortlisted Voss Literary Prize
2018 shortlisted Australian Booksellers Association Awards Booksellers Choice Award
2018 longlisted Kibble Literary Awards Nita Kibble Literary Award
2018 shortlisted ASAL Awards ALS Gold Medal
2018 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Australian Literary Fiction Book of the Year
2018 longlisted The Stella Prize
2018 winner Indie Awards Fiction
2018 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction
y separately published work icon The Eye of the Sheep Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2014 7586846 2014 single work novel historical fiction

'Ned was beside me, his messages running easily through him, with space between each one, coming through him like water. He was the go-between, going between the animal kingdom and this one. I watched the waves as they rolled and crashed towards us, one after another, never stopping, always changing. I knew what was making them come, I had been there and I would always know.

'Meet Jimmy Flick. He's not like other kids - he's both too fast and too slow. He sees too much, and too little. Jimmy's mother Paula is the only one who can manage him. She teaches him how to count sheep so that he can fall asleep. She holds him tight enough to stop his cells spinning. It is only Paula who can keep Jimmy out of his father's way. But when Jimmy's world falls apart, he has to navigate the unfathomable world on his own, and make things right.' (Publication summary)

2016 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
2015 shortlisted Voss Literary Prize
2014 commended The Fellowship of Australian Writers Victoria Inc. National Literary Awards FAW Christina Stead Award
2015 winner Miles Franklin Literary Award
2015 shortlisted The Stella Prize
Last amended 14 May 2019 15:49:43
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