Gillian Bouras (born 1945) is an

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. The term often refers to a professional, skilled worker, or student from an affluent country. However, it may also refer to retirees, artists and ...

Australian writer who has written several books, short stories and articles, many of these dealing with her experiences as an Australian woman in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Life

Gillian Bouras was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in 1945. Both her parents and her grandfather were school teachers. Her childhood was spent moving in several towns in Australia Victoria, including Nhill and Beechworth, and Melbourne. Gillian Bouras studied for her Bachelor of Arts at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

, and from 1967 to 1980 she worked as a secondary school teacher of English. In 1981 Mrs Bouras completed her Master of Education thesis at the same universityBouras (c.2003) on the life of her grandfather: ''School teacher in Victoria: The biography of Arthur John Hicks''.National Library of Australia She married George Bouras, a Greek emigrant to Australia, in 1969. In 1980 Gillian went with her husband and her two sons to the

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

area of Greece, initially for a six-month holiday, but the family stayed. She had her third son in Greece, and eventually became a Greek citizen. In 1996, her younger sister Jacqui committed suicide, after decades of mental illness. Bouras' book, ''No Time for Dances'', explores her sister's life in an attempt to understand her suicide. Gillian Bouras wrote: "I keep trying to close a mental door, or to put a very firm lid on these questions, for there are no answers, and writing them down is one way of attempting closure." Gillian Bouras now lives in the Peloponnese, Greece, but she maintains her ties with Australia.

Career

Bouras published her first book, the autobiographical ''A Foreign Wife'', in 1986. It describes her life as a foreign wife in Greece, and the challenges she faced in living in Greek culture and society. Most of the works she has published since then, both autobiographical and fiction, explore the themes of exile, cultural identity, and family. Gillian Bouras also published short stories and articles in newspapers and journals such as ''The Griffith Review'', ''

Meanjin ''Meanjin'' (), formerly ''Meanjin Papers'' and ''Meanjin Quarterly'', is one of Australia's longest-running literary magazines. Established in 1940 in Brisbane, it moved to Melbourne in 1945 and as of 2008 is an editorially independent impri ...

'' and ''Island''. She has presented papers at conferences and participated in literary events, in Australia and abroad. Since approximately 2000, Gillian Bouras prepared discussion notes for the book group program managed by the Australian Council of Adult Education (CAE).

Awards and nominations

*1994: ''Aphrodite and the Others'': Ethnic Affairs Commission Award in the

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, th ...

*2007: ''No Time for Dances'': Shortlisted for the National Biography AwardGood Reading Magazine

Works

Non-fiction

*''A Foreign Wife'' (1986) *''A Fair Exchange'' (1991) *''Aphrodite and the Others'' (1994) *''Starting Again'' (1999) *''No Time for Dances: A Memoir of my Sister'' (2006)

Adult fiction

*''A Stranger Here'' (1996)

Children's fiction

*''Saving Christmas'' (2000) *''Aphrodite Alexandra'' (2007)

Notes

External links

"Gillian Bouras: A Sister's Story", on ABC Radio National ''Life Matters'', 2006-05-18
Accessed: 2007-11-12
Gillian Bouras Website
Accessed 2010-03-12

References

Bouras, Gillian (c.2003) Submission No. 179 to the Senate Inquiry into Australian Expatriates
Accessed: 2007-11-12 *Bouras, Gillian (2006) ''No Time for Dances: A Memoir of My Sister'', Camberwell, Penguin
Good Reading Magazine News Archive, 2007-03-19
Accessed: 2007-11-12
National Library of Australia, Papers of Gillian Bouras, Ms7993
Accessed: 2007-11-12 *Wilde, William H., Hooton, Joy and Andrews, Barry (1994) ''The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature'' 2nd ed., Melbourne, Oxford University Press {{DEFAULTSORT:Bouras, Gillian 1945 births Australian women novelists Australian memoirists Australian women short story writers Australian children's writers Australian expatriates in Greece Living people 20th-century Australian novelists Writers from Melbourne Australian women memoirists Australian women children's writers 20th-century Australian women University of Melbourne alumni 20th-century Australian short story writers 21st-century Australian short story writers 21st-century Australian women writers