Maria Tumarkin is an Australian

cultural historian Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these gr ...

essayist An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

, and is senior lecturer in the School of Culture and Communication 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 ...

, teaching creative writing.

Early life and education

Tumarkin was born and raised in

Kharkov Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

, then part of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, now in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. She left her home country in 1989 when she was a teenager, before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. She holds a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

cultural history Cultural history records and interprets past events involving human beings through the social, cultural, and political milieu of or relating to the arts and manners that a group favors. Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897) helped found cultural history ...

from the

. Her PhD was titled "Secret Life of Wounded Spaces: Traumascapes in the contemporary Australia".

Writing

She writes books of ideas, reviews, essays and pieces for performance.

Academia and projects

She was an Honorary Artistic Outreach Associate (2015–2016) at the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions and a co-creator, with Moya McFadzean, of "The Unending Absence" project. Tumarkin taught

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character ...

at the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne.

Works

Books

* '' Traumascapes: The Power and Fate of Places Transformed by Tragedy'' (2005) * ''Courage'' (2007) * ''Otherland: A Journey With My Daughter'' (2010) * ''Axiomatic'' (2018)

Essays (selected)

*''This Narrated Life'' (Griffith Review, 1 May 2014) *''No Skin'' (2 September 2015) *''Against Motherhood'' (20 October 2018)

Awards

*''Otherland'' was shortlisted for the

Victorian Premier's Literary Awards The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. As of 2013, it is reportedly Australia's richest literary ...

The Age Book of the Year ''The Age'' Book of the Year Awards were annual literary awards presented by Melbourne's ''The Age'' newspaper. The awards were first presented in 1974. After 1998, they were presented as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival Melbourne Writer ...

, and

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 ...

. *"No Skin" was one of five finalists in the 2015

Melbourne Prize for Literature The Melbourne Prize Trust is a charitable foundation in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was founded in 2004 by Simon H. Warrender for the specific purpose of awarding three arts awards on a rotating three-year basis: the Melbourne Prize for Ur ...

category for essays shorter than 20,000 words''Where are all the great Australian essays?'', 24 February 2016

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

*''Axiomatic'' won the 2018 Melbourne Prize for Best Writing and was shortlisted for the 2019

Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction The Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction, formerly known as the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has a remuneration of 25,000. The winner of this category ...

. It was also shortlisted for the 2019

Stella Prize The Stella Prize is an Australian annual literary award established in 2013 for writing by Australian women in all genres, worth $50,000. It was originally proposed by Australian women writers and publishers in 2011, modelled on the UK's Bailey ...

. and the 2019 NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction. *Winner of the 2020 Windham-Campbell Literature Prize

References

External links

* Living people University of Melbourne alumni 20th-century Australian historians 21st-century Australian historians Year of birth missing (living people) {{Australia-historian-stub