Praise (novel)
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Praise (novel)
''Praise'' is the first novel of Australian author Andrew McGahan which won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 1991 for unpublished manuscripts and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. Inspired by the writings of Charles Bukowski, the semi-autobiographical account of a doomed, drug and alcohol-fuelled relationship became an Australian bestseller, and is often credited with launching the short-lived " grunge lit" movement – terminology that McGahan himself (along with most of the writers to whom it was applied) rejected. Synopsis As the story begins, narrator Gordon Buchanan quits his job at a drive-through bottle shop in Brisbane. He and his live-in girlfriend Cynthia LaMonde, a waitress, inhabit a world of casual sex, plentiful drugs and partying till dawn, pastimes that don't really give Gordon much pleasure, plagued as he is by a sense of being unfulfilled. Love affairs gone bad and fantasies undercut by reality are the norm for a generation that stop ...
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Andrew McGahan
Andrew McGahan (10 October 1966 – 1 February 2019) was an Australian novelist, best known for his first novel ''Praise'', and for his Miles Franklin Award-winning novel ''The White Earth''. His novel ''Praise'' is considered to be part of the Australian literary genre of grunge lit. Early life and education Born in Dalby, Queensland, McGahan was the ninth of ten children and grew up on a wheat farm. His schooling was at St Columba's and St Mary's colleges in Dalby, and then Marist College Ashgrove in Brisbane. He commenced an Arts degree at the University of Queensland, but dropped out halfway through, in 1985, to return to the family farm, and to commence his first novel – which was never published. He then spent the next few years working in a variety of jobs, until 1991, when he wrote his first published novel, ''Praise''. Literary career Novels In 1991 McGahan won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award for unpublished novels with ''Praise'' – a semi-autobiographical ...
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Allen And 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 went on to become one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and to establish an Australian subsidiary in 1976. In 1990, Allen & Unwin was sold to HarperCollins and the Australian branch was the subject of a management buy-out. George Allen & Unwin in the UK George Allen & Sons was established in 1871 by George Allen, with the backing of John Ruskin, becoming George Allen & Co. Ltd. in 1911 and then George Allen & Unwin in 1914 as a result of Stanley Unwin's purchase of a controlling interest. Unwin's son Rayner S. Unwin and nephew Philip helped run the company, which published the works of Bertrand Russell, Arthur Waley, Roald Dahl, Lancelot Hogben, and Thor Heyerdahl. It became well known as J. R. R. Tolkien's publisher, some time after publishing the popular children's fantasy novel ''The Hobbit'' in 1937, and its ...
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The Australian/Vogel Literary Award
''The Australian''/Vogel Literary Award is an Australian literary award for unpublished manuscripts by writers under the age of 35. The prize money, currently A$20,000, is the richest and most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript in Australia. The rules of the competition include that the winner's work be published by Allen & Unwin.Goodwin (1986) p. 270 The award was initiated in 1979 by Niels Stevns and is a collaboration between ''The Australian'' newspaper, the publisher Allen & Unwin, and Stevns & Company Pty Ltd. Stevns, founder of the company which makes Vogel bread, named the award in honour of Swiss naturopath Alfred Vogel. Winners *2022 – Nell Pierce, ''A Place Near Eden'' *2021 – Emma Batchelor, ''Now That I See You'' *2020 – K. M. Kruimink, ''A Treacherous Country'' * 2019 – No prize awarded * 2018 – Emily O'Grady, ''The Yellow House'' * 2017 – Marija Peričić, ''The Lost Pages'' * 2016 – Katherine Brabon, ''The Memory Artist'' *2015 ...
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Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted home city of Los Angeles. Bukowski's work addresses the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work. The FBI kept a file on him as a result of his column '' Notes of a Dirty Old Man'' in the LA underground newspaper ''Open City''. Bukowski published extensively in small literary magazines and with small presses beginning in the early 1940s and continuing on through the early 1990s. He wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books during the course of his career. Some of these works include his ''Poems Written Before Jumping Out of an 8 Story Window'', published by his friend and fellow poet Charles Potts, and ...
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Praise (film)
''Praise'' is a 1998 Australian drama film directed by John Curran and adapted by Andrew McGahan from his novel of the same name. The film stars Peter Fenton and Sacha Horler and is about two outcasts who fall into an unlikely relationship. Plot Gordon, a 25-year-old chain-smoking asthmatic who unhappily works at a Brisbane bottle shop, moves into a run-down residential hotel. He becomes embroiled in a romance with Cynthia, a former co-worker who suffers from eczema and low self-esteem. Gordon and Cynthia occupy themselves with drink, drugs, sex, and Scrabble. A love triangle arises when Gordon's former love, Rachel, comes back into his life. Cast Release The film premiered at the 1998 Toronto International Film Festival. It was also screened as part of the Panorama section at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival. Critical reception Elvis Mitchell of ''The New York Times'' wrote ''Praise'' "is uncanny and sizzling because it has the apparently aimless feel of a b ...
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John Curran (director)
John Curran (born September 11, 1960) is an American film director and screenwriter. Life and career Born in Utica, New York, Curran studied illustration and design at Syracuse University, then worked as an illustrator, graphic designer, and production designer in Manhattan before moving to Sydney, Australia in 1986. There he worked on television commercials before writing and directing the short film ''Down Rusty Down''. For his debut feature film, the 1998 drama ''Praise'', he was nominated for the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Direction and won the Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Director and the International Critics' Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Six years passed before Curran tackled his next project, the independent film ''We Don't Live Here Anymore'', for which he was nominated for the Grand Special Prize at the Deauville American Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. He followed this two years ...
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Peter Fenton (musician)
Crow are an Australian rock music, rock band that is best known for three albums released in the 1990s. Founded by songwriters Peter Fenton (musician), Peter Fenton and Peter Archer in Sydney in 1986, Crow ceased all activity in 1999, only to begin playing again in 2007. In 2009, they recorded an album of new material. Mixed by Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil), the album was released in 2010. In 1998, the respected Australian music magazine ''Juice'' labeled Crow as the 'best band in Australia since The Birthday Party (band), The Birthday Party'. With releases on Phantom Records, Phantom, Half A Cow, RooArt and Bertelsmann Music Group, BMG, Crow's evocative and influential music is widely acknowledged as having left an indelible mark upon the Australian musical landscape. Biography 1988-1993: Early years & ''My Kind of Pain'' From 1988 to 1992 Crow was a notoriously shambolic affair that could easily derail through equipment failures. Bringing performances to a jolting stop. Driven ...
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Sacha Horler
Sacha Horler (born 1971) is an Australian actress. Her parents were lawyers, but co-founded Sydney's Nimrod Theatre Company in the early 1970s. Career Sacha Horler graduated from Sydney's National Institute of Dramatic Arts in 1993 and made her film debut two years later with a role in the music-themed comedy ''Billy's Holiday''. Among her Sydney stage credits were featured roles in the one-act play collection ''Playgrounds'' (1996) and Harold Pinter's theater classic '' The Birthday Party'' (1997). In 1997, Horler was featured in the Australian-produced drama ''Blackrock'', and the following year she appeared in the international hit '' Babe: Pig in the City''. Horler's breakthrough role was in the 1998 gritty drama ''Praise'' which featured a significant amount of nudity and sex scenes. In 1999, her follow-up supporting role in ''Soft Fruit'' required her to gain weight for the part. That same year she had a supporting role in the drama ''My Mother Frank''. Over the next t ...
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National Institute Of Dramatic Art
The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is an Australian educational institution for the performing arts is based in Sydney, New South Wales. Founded in 1958, many of Australia's leading actors and directors trained at NIDA, including Cate Blanchett, Mel Gibson, Judy Davis and Baz Luhrmann. NIDA's main campus is based in the Sydney suburb of Kensington, located adjacent to the University of New South Wales (UNSW), and is made up of a range of rehearsal and performance venues. Its performance venues include the Parade Theatre (also the name of an earlier venue in NIDA's history); the Space; the Studio Theatre; and the Playhouse, while the Rodney Seaborn Library forms part of its library and the Reg Grundy Studio is a training and production facility for film and television. NIDA offers bachelor's, master's and vocational degrees in subjects including acting, writing, directing, scenic construction, technical theatre, voice, costume, props, production design and cultural l ...
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1992 Australian Novels
Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Mesopotamia is partitioned into two Roman provinces divided by the Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Osroene. * Emperor Septimius Severus lays siege to the city-state Hatra in Central-Mesopotamia, but fails to capture the city despite breaching the walls. * Two new legions, I Parthica and III Parthica, are formed as a permanent garrison. China * Battle of Yijing: Chinese warlord Yuan Shao defeats Gongsun Zan. Korea * Geodeung succeeds Suro of Geumgwan Gaya, as king of the Korean kingdom of Gaya (traditional date). By topic Religion * Pope Zephyrinus succeeds Pope Victor I, as the ...
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