Helen Garner
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Helen Garner (née Ford, born 7 November 1942) is an Australian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. Garner's
first novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...
, '' Monkey Grip'', published in 1977, immediately established her as an original voice on the Australian literary scene—it is now widely considered a classic. She has a reputation for incorporating and adapting her personal experiences in her fiction, something that has brought her widespread attention, particularly with her novels ''Monkey Grip'' and '' The Spare Room'' (2008). Throughout her career, Garner has written both fiction and non-fiction. She attracted controversy with her book '' The First Stone'' (1995) about a sexual-harassment scandal in a university college. She has also written for film and theatre, and has consistently won awards for her work, including the Walkley Award for a 1993 ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine report. Adaptations of two of her works have appeared as
feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...
s: her debut novel, ''Monkey Grip'', and her true-crime book '' Joe Cinque's Consolation'' (2004)—the former released in 1982 and the latter in 2016. Garner's works have covered a broad range of themes and subject matter. She has written three true-crime books: ''The First Stone'', about the aftermath of a sexual-harassment scandal at a university, ''Joe Cinque's Consolation'', a journalistic novel about the court proceedings involving a young man who died at the hands of his girlfriend, which won the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Book, and, in 2014, '' This House of Grief'', about Robert Farquharson, a man who drove his children into a dam. The
Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...
(ABC) site has characterised her as one of Australia's "most important and admired writers", while ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' referred to her as "Australia's greatest living writer".


Early life

Garner was born Helen Ford to Bruce and Gwen Ford (née Gadsden) in
Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...
, Victoria, the eldest of six children.Goldsworthy (1996) p. ix Her sister Catherine Ford is also a writer of fiction. Garner described her upbringing as being in an "ordinary Australian home—not many books and not much talk". Garner attended Manifold Heights State School, Ocean Grove State School and then The Hermitage in Geelong, where she was the head prefect and dux. She left Geelong after her high school graduation at the age of 18 to study 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 ...
,Wyndham (2006) residing at
Janet Clarke Hall Janet Clarke Hall (JCH) is a residential college of the University of Melbourne in Australia. The college is associated with the Anglican Province of Victoria. Founded in 1886 JCH was the first university college in Australia to admit women ...
, and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in English and French. One of her teachers at the University of Melbourne was the poet Vincent Buckley. Between 1966 and 1972, Garner worked as a teacher at various Victorian high schools. In 1967, she also travelled overseas and met Bill Garner, whom she married in 1968 on their return to Australia, aged 25. Her only child, the actor, musician and writer Alice Garner, was born in 1969. Garner's first marriage ended in 1971. In 1972, Garner was sacked by the Victorian Department of Education for "giving an unscheduled
sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual activity, sexual reproduction, safe sex, birth ...
lesson to her 13-year-old students at Fitzroy High School". She had written an essay about the lesson and published it under a
pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
in '' The Digger'', a countercultural
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 ...
-based magazine. Garner wrote that she had intended to give a lesson on Ancient Greece, but the textbooks given to her students had been defaced with sexually explicit drawings. As a result of those drawings, the class had posed questions to Garner relating to sex, and she decided to allow an uninhibited discussion based around their questions which, as their teacher, she vowed to answer accurately. When her identity was revealed, she was called into the Victorian Department of Education and dismissed. The case was widely publicised in Melbourne, bringing Garner a degree of notoriety. Members of the Victorian Secondary Teachers Association went on strike in protest at the deputy director of Secondary Education's decision to fire Garner. Aside from her writing for ''The Digger'', she also wrote articles for the Melbourne feminist newspaper ''Vashti's Voice''. Garner appeared in the 1975 independent film '' Pure Shit'', which focuses on four drug addicts searching for heroin in Melbourne.


Career


Early career and fiction writing

Garner came to prominence at a time when Australian writers were relatively few in number, and Australian women writers were, by some, considered a novelty. Australian academic and writer, Kerryn Goldsworthy, writes that "From the beginning of her writing career Garner was regarded as, and frequently called, a stylist, a realist, and a feminist".Goldsworthy (1996) p. 1 Her first novel, '' Monkey Grip'' (1977), relates the lives of a group of fledgeling artists, single parents, drug addicts and welfare recipients living in Melbourne share-houses. In particular focus is the increasingly co-dependent relationship between single mother Nora and Javo, a flaky junkie whom Nora is in love with, despite him repeatedly drifting in and out of her life. The novel, set in inner-city Melbourne suburbs Fitzroy and Carlton, was written in the domed reading room at the State Library of Victoria, after Garner's teaching dismissal. Years later she stated that she had adapted it directly from her personal diaries and based the relationship between Nora and Javo on a relationship she had with a man at the time. Other peripheral characters in the book were based on people in Garner's own social circle from Melbourne share-houses. ''Monkey Grip'' was very successful: it won the National Book Council Award in 1978 and was adapted into a film in 1982. Goldsworthy suggests that the success of ''Monkey Grip'' may well have helped revive the careers of two older but largely ignored Australian women writers, Jessica Anderson and
Thea Astley Thea Beatrice May Astley (25 August 1925 – 17 August 2004) was an Australian novelist and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more Miles Franklin ...
.Goldsworthy (1996) p. 14 Astley wrote of the novel that "I am filled with envy by someone like Helen Garner for instance. I re-read ''Monkey Grip'' a while ago and it's even better second time through". Critics have retrospectively applied the term grunge lit to describe ''Monkey Grip'', citing its depiction of urban life and social realism as key aspects of later works in the subgenre.Vernay, Jean-François
"Grunge Fiction"
''The Literary Encyclopedia'', 6 November 2008, accessed 9 September 2009
In subsequent books, she has continued to adapt her personal experiences. Her later novels are '' The Children's Bach'' (1984) and '' Cosmo Cosmolino'' (1992). In 2008 she returned to fiction writing with the publication of '' The Spare Room'', a fictional treatment of caring for a dying cancer patient, based on the illness and death of Garner's friend Jenya Osborne. She has also published several short-story collections: ''Honour & Other People's Children: Two Stories'' (1980), ''Postcards from Surfers'' (1985) and ''My Hard Heart: Selected Fictions'' (1998). In 1986, Australian academic and critic Don Anderson wrote of ''The Children's Bach'': "There are four perfect short novels in the English language. They are, in chronological order,
Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review (1924), The Transatlant ...
's '' The Good Soldier'', Scott Fitzgerald's ''
The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' () is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with Jay Gatsby, a mysterious mi ...
'', Hemingway's ''
The Sun Also Rises ''The Sun Also Rises'' is the first novel by the American writer Ernest Hemingway, following his experimental novel-in-fragments '' In Our Time (short story collection)'' (1925). It portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Par ...
'' and Garner's ''The Children's Bach''." The Australian composer Andrew Schultz wrote an opera of the same name, which premiered in 2008. Garner said, in 1985, that writing novels was like "trying to make a patchwork quilt look seamless. A novel is made up of scraps of our own lives and bits of other people's, and things we think of in the middle of the night and whole notebooks full of randomly collected details". In an interview in 1999, she said that "My initial reason for writing is that I need to shape things so I can make them bearable or comprehensible to myself. It's my way of making sense of things that I've lived and seen other people live, things that I'm afraid of, or that I long for". Not all critics have liked Garner's work. Goldsworthy writes, "It is certainly the case that Garner is someone whose work elicits strong feelings ... and people who dislike her work are profoundly irritated by those who think she is one of the best writers in the country". Novelist and reviewer
Peter Corris Peter Robert Corris (8 May 1942 – 30 August 2018) was an Australian academic, historian, journalist and a novelist of historical and crime fiction. As crime fiction writer, he was described as "the Godfather of contemporary Australian crime-w ...
wrote in his review of ''Monkey Grip'' that Garner "has published her private journal rather than written a novel", while Peter Pierce wrote in ''
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 ...
'' of '' Honour & Other People's Children'' that Garner "talks dirty and passes it off as realism". Goldsworthy suggests that these two statements imply that she is not really a writer. Craven, though, argues that her novella ''The Children's Bach'' "should put paid to the myth of Helen Garner as a mere literalist or reporter", arguing, in fact, that it "is light-years away from any sprawling-tell-it-all naturalism,
hat A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...
it is concentrated realism of extraordinary formal polish and the amount of tonal variation which it gets from its seemingly simple plot is multifoliate to the point of being awesome".


Screen writing

She has written three screenplays: '' Monkey Grip'' (1982), written with and directed by
Ken Cameron Ken Cameron (born 1946) is an Australian film and television director and writer. Cameron was born in Tenterfield, New South Wales, Australia and graduated from Sydney University with BA in 1968. He has won two AACTA Awards, AFI Awards for direc ...
; '' Two Friends'' (1986), directed by
Jane Campion Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films ''The Piano'' (1993) and ''The Power of the Dog (film), The Power of the Dog'' (2021), for ...
for TV; and '' The Last Days of Chez Nous'' (1992), directed by
Gillian Armstrong Gillian May Armstrong (born 18 December 1950) is an Australian feature film and documentary film director, director, best known for ''My Brilliant Career (film), My Brilliant Career'' (1979), ''Mrs. Soffel'' (1984), ''High Tide (1987 film), Hi ...
. The relationship between two characters in ''The Last Days of Chez Nous'' was loosely inspired by the extramarital affair Garner's second husband had with her sister. Critic Peter Craven writes that "''Two Friends'' is arguably the most accomplished piece of screenwriting the country has seen and it is characterised by a total lack of condescension towards the teenage girls at its centre".


Non-fiction writing

Garner has written non-fiction from the beginning of her career as a writer. In 1972, she was fired from her teaching job after publishing in ''The Digger'', a counter-culture magazine, an anonymous account of frank and extended discussions she had with her students about sexuality and sexual activities. She wrote for this magazine from 1972 to 1974. In 1993, she won a Walkley Award for her ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine account of a murder trial following the death of a toddler at the hands of his stepfather. One of her most famous and controversial books is '' The First Stone'' (1995), an account of a 1992 sexual harassment scandal at Ormond College. It was a best-seller in Australia but also attracted considerable criticism. Garner received hate-mail from women in Australia who accused her of derailing the feminist debate, and closing ranks with the abuser. She has since commented: "Sometimes I would have these kind of panic attacks caused by the hostility that some people showed towards me. I guess I knew there was going to be trouble, but the vitriolic nature of it gave me a bit of a shock". Garner's other non-fiction books are ''True Stories: Selected Non-Fiction'' (1996), ''The Feel of Steel'' (2001), '' Joe Cinque's Consolation'' (2004) and '' This House of Grief – The Story of a Murder Trial'' (2014). She also contributed to ''La Mama, the Story of a Theatre'' (1988). ''Joe Cinque's Consolation'' details a notorious murder case in
Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...
involving a law student, Anu Singh, who drugged and murdered her boyfriend. It was adapted into a feature film in 2016. The film had premiers at both the Melbourne Film Festival and the
Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...
, where it was generally well received, although detractors felt that the absence of Garner's voice from the story impacted the film—James Robert Douglas, writing for ''The Guardian'', stated the film adaptation contained the "bones but not the wisdom of Garner's book".


Themes

Garner has covered a broad range of themes in her work, including feminism, love, loss, grief, ageing, illness, death, murder, betrayal, addiction and the duality of the human psyche, particularly in manifestations of "good" and "evil". Her earliest work, ''Monkey Grip'', is well known for its untamed depiction of heroin addiction. Its central character, a single mother, falls in love with an addict in an inner-city bohemian Melbourne suburb, dotted with junkies and share houses, during the 1970s. Drug addiction was not a subject Garner revisited, aside from touching on recreational drug use among university students in ''Joe Cinque's Consolation''. ''Monkey Grip'' established Garner's trademark theme of obsession, particularly in conjunction with love and sexuality—enmeshed with substance abuse mirroring the addiction of romantic love. Some of her novels address "sexual desire and the family", exploring "the relationship between sexual behaviour and social organisation; the anarchic nature of desire and the orderly force of the institution of 'family'; the similarities and differences between collective households and nuclear families; the significance and the language of housework; ndthe idea of 'the house' as image, symbol, site and peace." Garner has become known for her depiction of Australian life, both in the city and rural regions—she was born in Geelong and spent much of her life in Melbourne, approximately from her hometown. Anne Myers, in an article written for ''
The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...
'', recognised Garner's portrayals of the location of Melbourne as essential to ''Monkey Grip'' itself as any character: "Garner was writing Melbourne into the literary landscape and for the first time I saw my own world reflected back at me". ''Joe Cinque's Consolation'', ''This House of Grief'' and, to a lesser extent, ''The First Stone'' were commentaries on the justice system in Australia, how (and if) it adequately responds to crime, and the question of culpability. Craven comments that Garner is "always an extremely ''accurate'' writer in terms of the emotional states she depicts". Many of her books touch upon the inexplicable, irrational, and dark side to human behaviour—as well as Garner's attempts to understand human behaviour and sociology, which often eludes the average Australian and wider society, as well as the Australian justice system. In ''The Fate of The First Stone'', Garner writes that she believes most people would prefer to keep incomprehensible stories of extreme behaviour at "arm's length" because it is "more comfortable, easier". Peter Craven wrote that Garner is fearless in her honesty: "she shows us what she does not know or is too blind to see: she shows us the poverty of the self in the face of impercipience caused by sentiment or anger, prejudice, ignorance or dumb incapacity." He further commented on her ability to sometimes identify with the story's perceived villain, " hetransgressor who at some level shares our own fingerprints". Similarly, critics and journalists have highlighted Garner's portrayal of "ordinary people" caught up in extraordinary experiences, or the everyday person who, "under life's unbearable pressures", has "surrendered to their darker selves". James Wood, in a profile on Garner published in ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'', stated that her work is absorbed in issues of gender and class, which he writes are "not categories so much as structures of feeling, variously argued over, enjoyed, endured, and escaped". As part of her depiction of Australian life, Garner's work often included an exploration of masculinity and its codes, an exploration that found a focussed expression in '' The Season'', which observed adolescent boys transitioning into adulthood within the framework of
Australian Rules Football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...
.


Personal life

After her marriage to Bill Garner ended, Garner married two more times: to Jean-Jacques Portail (1980–85) and Australian writer Murray Bail (born 1941), from whom she separated in the late 1990s. She is no longer married. In her work, she has been open about her struggle with depression and her two
abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...
s. She has one child, Alice Garner (b. 1969), from her marriage to Bill Garner. Alice Garner is also an author, as well as a musician, teacher and historian. In 2003, a portrait of Garner, titled ''True Stories'', painted by
Jenny Sages Jenny Sages (born 1933 in Shanghai, China) is an Archibald Prize People's Choice Award winning Australian artist. She is known for her abstract landscape paintings and portraits. She arrived in Australia in 1948. After being expelled from East ...
, was a finalist in the
Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...
.


Bibliography


Novels

*'' Monkey Grip'' (1977) *''Moving Out'' (1983) *'' The Children's Bach'' (1984) *'' Cosmo Cosmolino'' (1992) *'' The Spare Room'' (2008)


Short story collections

*'' Honour & Other People's Children: Two Stories'' (1980) *'' Postcards from Surfers'' (1985) *'' My Hard Heart: Selected Fiction'' (1998) *''Stories: The Collected Short Fiction'' (2017)


Screenplays

*'' Monkey Grip'' (1982, directed and co-written by
Ken Cameron Ken Cameron (born 1946) is an Australian film and television director and writer. Cameron was born in Tenterfield, New South Wales, Australia and graduated from Sydney University with BA in 1968. He has won two AACTA Awards, AFI Awards for direc ...
) *'' Two Friends'' (1986, telemovie, directed by
Jane Campion Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films ''The Piano'' (1993) and ''The Power of the Dog (film), The Power of the Dog'' (2021), for ...
) *'' The Last Days of Chez Nous'' (1992, directed by
Gillian Armstrong Gillian May Armstrong (born 18 December 1950) is an Australian feature film and documentary film director, director, best known for ''My Brilliant Career (film), My Brilliant Career'' (1979), ''Mrs. Soffel'' (1984), ''High Tide (1987 film), Hi ...
)


Non-fiction

*''La Mama: History of a Theatre'' ( Liz Jones with Betty Burstall and Helen Garner, 1988) *'' The First Stone'' (1995) *'' True Stories: Selected Non-Fiction'' (1996) *''And the Winner Is–: Eighteen Winning Stories from Eltham's Alan Marshall Award, Australian Authors, Both Winners and Judges, Discuss Their Work in a Book about Writing'' (authors Helen Garner and Jon Weaving) (1997) *'' The Feel of Steel'' (2001) *'' Joe Cinque's Consolation'' (2004) *''Somewhere to Belong: A Blueprint for 21st Century Youth Clubs'' (authors Helen Garner and Julia Hargreaves) (2009) *'' This House of Grief – The Story of a Murder Trial'' (2014) *''Regions of Thick-Ribbed Ice'' (2015) *'' Everywhere I Look'' (2016) *''True Stories: The Collected Short Non-Fiction'' (2017) *'' The Season'' (2024)


Autobiographies

*''Yellow Notebook: Diaries Volume I 1978–1987'' (2019) *''One Day I'll Remember This: Diaries 1987–1995'' (2020) *''How To End A Story: Diaries 1995–1998'' (2021)


Essays and reporting


"Man with the Pearl-White Cord"
Dec 2005 – Jan 2006, No. 8, ''
The Monthly ''The Monthly'' is an Australian national magazine of politics, society and the arts, which is published eleven times per year on a monthly basis except the December/January issue. Founded in 2005, it is published by Melbourne property developer ...
''
"Moving Experience"
September 2005, No. 5, ''The Monthly''
"Punishing Lauren"
June 2005, No. 2, ''The Monthly''

18 January 2013 ''
The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...
''


Critical studies and reviews of Garner's work

*


Awards and nominations

* '' Monkey Grip'' ** 1978 – National Book Council award * '' The Children's Bach'' ** 1986 – South Australian Premier's Awards * '' Postcards from Surfers'' ** 1986 –
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 ...
, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction * '' Two Friends'' ** 1987 –
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 ...
, Television Writing Award ** 1987 – Best Screenplay in a Telefeature * '' Cosmo Cosmolino'' ** 1993 – Shortlisted for the
Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the Will (law), will of Miles Franklin ...
* ''Did Daniel Have to Die?'' ** 1993 – Walkley Award for Best Feature Writing, published in ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' * ''True Stories: Selected Non-fiction'' ** 1997 – Nita Kibble Literary Award * '' Joe Cinque's Consolation'' ** 2004 – ABIA Book of the Year ** 2005 – Ned Kelly Awards joint winner for Best True Crime * '' The Spare Room'' ** 2008 – Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction ** 2008 –
Queensland Premier's Literary Awards The Queensland Premier's Literary Awards were an Australian suite of literary awards inaugurated in 1999 and disestablished in 2012. It was one of the most generous suites of literary awards within Australia, with $225,000 in prize money across ...
Fiction Book Award ** 2009 – Barbara Jefferis Award * '' This House of Grief'' ** 2015 – Ned Kelly Award – Best True Crime ** 2015 – Longlisted Stella Prize ** 2015 – Shortlisteds ABIA General Non-Fiction Book of the Year. **2015 - Shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards ** 2016 – Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for non-fiction works ** 2016 – Western Australian Premier's Book Awards – non-fiction ** 2016 – Western Australian Premier's Book Awards – overall prize * '' Everywhere I Look'' ** 2017 – Shortlist for The Indie Book Awards * 2006 – Melbourne Prize for Literature *2019 –
Australia Council Creative Australia, formerly known as the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announ ...
Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature *2020 – Australian Book Industry Awards' Lloyd O'Neil Award and Hall of Fame *2023 –
Australian Society of Authors The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) was formed in 1963 as the organisation to promote and protect the rights of Australia's authors and illustrators. The Fellowship of Australian Writers played a key role it its establishment. The organisati ...
' ASA Medal


Critical studies and reviews

* Review of ''This House of Grief''. In October 2023, John Powers, NPR's pop culture critic, described Garner as "This Australian writer might be the greatest novelist you've never heard of", noting in particular ''The Children's Bach'', and ''This House of Grief''. He summarises: "Near the end of ''The Children's Bach'', the womanizing musician tells Athena how to write a song. "You have to steer a line," he says, "between what you understand and what you don't." He could well be describing what makes Garner's work so compelling. Reading her, I'm always inspired that a writer who already knows so much of life never stops pushing herself into unknown territory."This Australian writer might be the greatest novelist you've never heard of
John Power, NPR, 2023-10-12


Notes


References

* Craven, Peter (1985) "Of war and needlework: the fiction of Helen Garner" in ''
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 ...
'', 44(2): 209–219 * * Goldsworthy, Kerryn (1996) ''Australian Writers: Helen Garner'', Melbourne,
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
* Grenville, Kate and Woolfe, Sue (2001) ''Making Stories: How Ten Australian Novels Were Written'',
Allen & Unwin George Allen & Unwin was a British publishing company formed in 1911 when Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It became one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and established an Australian ...
* McPhee, Hilary (2001) ''Other People's Words'', Sydney, Picador


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Garner, Helen 1942 births Living people Australian feminist writers Australian women journalists Australian journalists Australian women short story writers Australian women novelists Australian women screenwriters Writers from Geelong University of Melbourne alumni Ned Kelly Award winners 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian women writers 21st-century Australian novelists 21st-century Australian women writers 20th-century Australian short story writers 21st-century Australian short story writers Grunge lit authors Australian non-fiction crime writers Australian women crime writers