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Peter Carey - Biography, Awards, Bibliography

Writer, born in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, SE Australia. He attended Geelong Grammar School before beginning a career as an advertising copywriter. His first book, The Fat Man in History (1974), was a collection of short stories, and he was quickly regarded as an innovative force in Australian writing. Later books include Bliss (1981), Illywhacker (1985), Oscar and Lucinda (1988, Booker), The Tax Inspector (1991), The True History of the Kelly Gang (2001, Booker; Commonwealth Writers Prize), and Theft: A Love Story (2006). In 2005 appeared Wrong about Japan: A Father's Journey with His Son. He co-wrote the screenplays for Bliss (1985) and Until the End of the World (1990).

Peter Philip Carey

Born: May 7, 1943 (age 63)
Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia
Occupation(s): Novelist, Short story writer, Children book writer
Nationality: Australian
Writing period: 1974-present
Debut work(s): Bliss (novel)
The Big Bazoohley (children book)
The Fat Man in History (short story)

Peter Philip Carey (born May 7, 1943) is an Australian novelist.

Biography

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Peter Carey was born in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, in 1943.

While working in advertising, Carey wrote and published a number of short stories, in magazines and newspapers such as Meanjin and Nation Review.

Carey started his own advertising agency in 1980, the Sydney-based McSpedden Carey Advertising Consultants, in partnership with Bani McSpedden. He married theatre director, Alison Summers, in 1985, and some time around 1990 sold his share of McSpedden Carey and moved to New York, during the writing of The Tax Inspector.

In 1998, he provoked further controversy by declining an invitation to meet Queen Elizabeth II after winning the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Jack Maggs, many believing his response to be motivated by his Australian Republican beliefs, though he cited family and personal reasons at the time.

Awards

Carey has won numerous literary awards, including:

The Booker Prize Illywhacker, shortlisted in 1985; Peter Carey and J M Coetzee are the only authors to have won the Booker Prize twice.
The Miles Franklin Award Bliss, 1981; True History of the Kelly Gang, shortlisted in 2001
The Age Book of the Year Award Illywhacker, 1985; Jack Maggs, 1997
The Commonwealth Writers Prize Jack Maggs, 1998; True History of the Kelly Gang, 2001
New South Wales Premier's Literary Award War Crimes, 1980; Bliss, 1982
NBC Banjo Award Bliss, 1982; Oscar and Lucinda, 1989
FAW Barbara Ramsden Award Illywhacker, 1985
Vance Palmer Prize for fiction Illywhacker, 1986
Townsville Foundation for Australian Literary Studies Award Oscar and Lucinda, 1988
South Australia Festival Award Oscar and Lucinda, 1990
Ditmar Award for Best Australian Science Fiction Novel Illywhacker, 1986

Bibliography

Novels

Bliss (1981) Illywhacker (1985) Oscar and Lucinda (1988) The Tax Inspector (1991) The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith (1994) Jack Maggs (1997) True History of the Kelly Gang (2000) My Life as a Fake (2003) Theft (2006)

Children's books

The Big Bazoohley (1995)

Short story collections

The Fat Man in History (1974) War Crimes (1979) Exotic Pleasures (1990) Collected Stories (1994) - collects all the works from The Fat Man in History and War Crimes, as well as three previously uncollected works.

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