Rebecca Giggs is a Perth-based Australian nonfiction writer, known for ''Fathoms: The World in the Whale''.

Career

Giggs studied at the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

. She holds an LLB, BA Arts (Hons) and a PhD in ecological literary studies conferred in 2014. Giggs is an honorary fellow at the

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. She was awarded the 2017 Mick Dark flagship fellowship by Varuna for "The Whale in the Room", the working title for ''Fathoms''. She won support from Writers Victoria through the Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund to visit the Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, Germany as a writing fellow in 2018. As an essayist, Giggs has contributed to ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

'' on science subjects from "Why We're Afraid of Bats" to "Human Drugs Are Polluting the Water—And Animals Are Swimming in It". Her first book, ''Fathoms: The World in the Whale'', was published in 2020 worldwide by

Scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of Printing press, automatic printing. The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as ...

and by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

in the USA.

Awards and recognition

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' named ''Fathoms'' in their "10 Top Summer Reads in Nonfiction" and described the book as "a thoughtful, ambitiously crafted appeal for the preservation of marine mammals". In November 2020 Giggs won the

Nib Literary Award The Nib Literary Award, established in 2002 at the suggestion of actor and producer Chris Haywood, the Patron of the Friends of Waverley Library, as The Nib Waverley Library Award for Literature and since 2017 known as the Mark and Evette Mora ...

and in February 2021 she won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction for ''Fathoms.'' In 2021, ''Fathoms'' was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize, alongside

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature d ...

's ''A Life on Our Planet'' and others, in the Global Conservation Writing category''.''

Bibliography

Books

Reviews

*
What Lies Beneath
– review of Robert Macfarlane's '' Underland''

References

External links

*
Interview
with Eric Liebetrau for ''

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Giggs, Rebecca Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Australian women writers 21st-century Australian essayists University of Western Australia alumni Academic staff of Macquarie University Australian women essayists Australian science communicators Australian nature writers